WASHINGTON — At-the-pump diesel prices nudged only slightly higher during the seven-day period ending Aug. 29, as truckers and oil traders alike waited for full-impact assessments of damage done by Hurricane Katrina to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) in Washington reported a nationwide average increase of only two-tenths of a cent in the cost of diesel to $2.590 a gallon. Freight haulers and diesel distributors throughout the U.S. were also waiting to see just how far-reaching the effects of Katrina would be on the transportation and oil industries. Analysts said that even if Katrina did less harm than feared, its effects were bound to tighten the availability of already scarce refined products, which undoubtedly will likely push prices skyward.
The EIA reported no change in the price of diesel in two of the nine geographical zones monitored by the government agency. A drop in prices was recorded in three other regions.
Increases reported by the EIA were 4.7 cents to $2.726 a gallon in the Rocky Mountain area; 2.3 cents to $2.920 along the West Coast; seven-tenths of a cent to $2.649 a gallon in New England; and eight-tenths of a cent to $3.045 in California. California is the only zone so far to break the $3-a-gallon barrier.
Prices remained unchanged at $2.564 on the East Coast and at $2.654 in the Central Atlantic.
The zones where the cost of diesel fell were the Midwest by eight-tenths of a cent to $2.532; the Gulf Coast by four-tenths of a cent to $2.508; and the Lower Atlantic states by one-tenth of a penny to $2.518.
Light, sweet crude oil for October deliver was at $67.90 a barrel, up 70 cents, in electronic trading on the Nymex. Prices are more than 50 percent higher than a year ago. On London’s International Petroleum Exchange, October Brent spiked $1.38 from an earlier settlement price to $66.25 a barrel.
On Aug. 29, Nymex futures jumped to a record $70.80 a barrel on signs that Katrina would blast her way into U.S. facilities, which account for a third of U.S. crude and a quarter of its natural-gas supplies. Prices fell to close at $67.20 a barrel on reports that the Bush administration might release crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.