Trade Tension May Push Oil Prices, Fuel Prices Lower

After weeks of a steady increase, oil prices are starting to drift lower. Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com said you can blame fears that the trade war between the U.S. and China will escalate in the coming months, following tweets this weekend by President Trump. DeHaan said diesel prices have increased roughly one cents in the past week, but he expects those increases to stall out.

“As we come out heating oil season, so it’s possible that in the next couple of weeks, we see both diesel and gasoline start to drift lower.”

It’s not just China that’s pushing oil prices lower, but uncertainty with OPEC and Iran are also dragging oil prices. But DeHaan noted the unrest in Venezuela is not a concern for international investors. He noted Venezuela becoming less and less of a player in the world of oil.

"The crisis there has really crippled the amount of oil they’ve exported, and so a lot of countries have looked elsewhere, and certainly that is why prices have not really reacted to Venezuela. It’s been a slow, but steady decline there.”

The national diesel prices has not changed in the past week, holding at $3.10 a gallon, Washington’s average also held steady at $3.43 a gallon, and in Oregon, the price for diesel also was unchanged at $3.29 a gallon.

When looking at your local diesel prices, here are some of the lowest figures we could find: