The Department of Energy in its monthly Short Term Energy Outlook has again downwardly revised its forecast for the price of diesel for 2013, now projecting that diesel will average $3.88 a gallon this year, based on its own projections of dropping crude oil prices.
In its May forecast, the DOE’s Energy Information Administration had projected diesel to average $3.92 a gallon in 2013. In April it projected diesel to average $3.94 this year.
It’s also downwardly revised its 2014 projects by 2 cents, forecasting now that the average price in 2014 will drop 11 cents from this year’s average to $3.77 a gallon.
The average price for a gallon of diesel in 2012, according to the energy department, was $3.97. In 2011, diesel average $3.84 a gallon.
According to the DOE data, the price of a barrel of crude oil dropped to $97 in mid-April, a $22 drop from February 2013’s $119. That price, however, recovered in May to average $103 a barrel. The EIA says it projects crude oil to average $102 a gallon in the second half of the year and $100 a barrel in 2014.
