Diesel, Oil Prices Continues to Hold Steady

2017 has turned out to be an A-Typical summer when it comes to fuel prices.  It’s usually this time of year when oil prices, thus diesel and gas prices increase.  However, oil prices have held or dropped this year.  According to AAA, a barrel of crude is trading around $43, a 13% month-over-month drop.  Marie Dodds with AAA says this comes despite OPEC’s cut in production, which was intended to force oil prices higher.  She told the Washington Ag Network despite that, there’s still a lot of oil on the open market, and much of that is making its way to the U.S.

“U.S. Refinery capacity is up about 659,000 barrels per day since mid-August of 2015 and that’s the equivalent of building a new refinery in the U.S.”

Dodds said the national average for a gallon of diesel dropped two cents in the past week, to $2.45, Washington, rate also dropped two cents a gallon to $2.83 a gallon , and Oregon’s prices inched down one cent to $2.66 a gallon.

As far as the lowest local prices we could find:

• $2.59 a gallon in the Tri Cities
• $2.55 a gallon in Pendleton
• $2.69 a gallon in Walla Walla
• $2.69 a gallon Quincy
• $2.71 a gallon I Wenatchee
• $2.69 a gallon in Yakima
• $2.64 a gallon in Moses Lake

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com