[UPDATE] U.S. average diesel price hits $5.69 a gallon, up 54% in a year, as August inventories fall to 1980s seasonal lows
Exports of diesel and related fuels rose about 28% over the past year even as domestic stocks tightened; the price is up 33 cents in the past month alone.
The national average price of diesel reached $5.69 a gallon on Wednesday, up 33 cents in a month and 54% from a year earlier, as Middle East strikes and Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries squeezed global supply. U.S. inventories in late August fell to seasonal levels not seen since the 1980s, even as American refiners raised exports roughly 28% over the preceding year and booked stronger margins. (TS: EIA weekly data show 103.4 million barrels of commercial distillate for the week ending Aug. 21, after a 2.2-million-barrel draw.) The White House said Donald Trump met with refinery executives about the squeeze. "This was not a 'drill, baby, drill' meeting," deputy press secretary Kush Desai said. "This was a 'refine, baby, refine' meeting."
PREVIOUSLY
A Pennsylvania school district's budget showed on Aug. 30 how war-driven diesel costs reach local spending. On Sept. 1 U.S. crude passed $90 a barrel, up 12% in a week, and the emergency oil reserve fell to 286.6 million barrels, its lowest since 1982.
What the emergency diesel reserve covers, and who gets the exports:
- The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve holds 1 million barrels — about 6.3 hours of national distillate use at the recent 3.8 million barrels a day.
- Releasing it requires the president to first declare a severe energy-supply interruption under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, the 1975 law that created the federal fuel reserves.
- In June, the largest single buyer of U.S. distillate exports was Mexico at 8.65 million barrels, 20% of the month's total.
