Retail Diesel Fuel Oil Prices

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• Along with heating oil prices, the distillate supply squeeze has severely impacted diesel fuel prices, especially in the Northeast.
  • Diesel fuel is bascially the same product as home heating oil. The primary difference is that diesel has a lower sulfur content.
  • When heating oil is in short supply, low sulfur diesel fuel can be diverted to heating oil supply. Thus, diesel fuel prices rise with heating heating oil prices.

• Retail diesel fuel prices nationally, along with those of most other petroleum prices, increased steadily through most of 1999. But prices in the Northeast jumped dramatically in the third week of January.

• Diesel fuel prices in New England rose nearly 68 cents per gallon, or 47 percent, between January 17 and February 7. While EIA does not have weekly diesel price data by state, you can assume Rhode Island was following the New England prices upward. Diesel fuel prices in the Mid-Atlantic region rose about 58 cents per gallon (42 percent) in the same period, compared to an increase of 16 cents in the national average.