East Coast Diesel Inventories Hit Record Lows, Sending Prices Skyrocketing To Record Highs

Diesel fuel inventories on the East Coast have hit the lowest levels on record, sending prices soaring to record levels and worsening economic pressures from the fuel crisis.

Last week, inventories of diesel fuel on the East Coast reached the lowest seasonal levels in 30 years, since the federal government began recording inventories, according to a report from Bloomberg. News of the shortage triggered a crisis in the market, and diesel prices surged to an all-time high. Prices spiked to $5.16 per gallon, GasBuddy reported, breaking the previous record of $5.15 per gallon set on March 10. The gap between gasoline and diesel prices also reached a record high of $1 per gallon, breaking the previous record price difference of 98 cents set all the way back in November 2008. Diesel prices continued to increase over the weekend, Bloomberg reported, rising to about $5.30 per gallon Tuesday. That spike was the fifth consecutive daily price increase in retail diesel prices. Diesel is already up more than 75% since last year, and prices are worst on the Eastern seaboard, retailing for at least $6 a gallon.

“While gasoline prices get much of the attention, diesel, which broadly is the fuel that moves the economy, has quietly surpassed its recent record high as distillate inventories, which include diesel and jet fuel, have plummeted to their lowest level in years,” GasBuddy chief petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said in a press release last week. “Should distillate inventories fall another five million barrels, which is less than five percent, they will be at their lowest level in nearly 20 years, compounding the problem. There’s no quick solution as the economy has seen a robust turn around, made worse by Russia’s war on Ukraine as the West fences off Russia’s oil.” – READ MORE