The Department of Energy reported Monday that the national average price of diesel for the week ended May 6 was $3.845 — a six-tenths of a cent drop from the previous week. That drop, however, was enough to secure 10 straight weeks of declines in the national average price, and diesel is at its lowest point since August.
Compared to the same week in 2012, the national average diesel price is 21.2 cents lower.
The DOE also released this week its monthly Short Term Energy Outlook report, which forecasts diesel prices for the next year and a half.
In it, the department forecasts that the price of diesel will continue to drop this year and next. In 2013, the price of diesel will average $3.92, five cents lower than 2012’s average. In 2014, the DOE forecasts another 15-cent drop to a $3.78 average.
The projections stem from sharp drops — and expected stabilization — in crude oil per-barrel prices.
The DOE predicts that the price of diesel this year will continue to slowly drop to the end of the year, in which they forecast December prices of about $3.77 per gallon.
