US diesel hits a record 5.85 dollars a gallon as the Iran war and Ukraine strikes squeeze supply
The US diesel average reached a record 5.85 dollars a gallon, passing the 5.81 dollar high set in June 2022, as Brent crude traded near 95.55 dollars a barrel. AAA tied the move to crude costs rather than seasonal demand, and NPR reported that Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries are compounding the disruption the Iran war has caused at the Strait of Hormuz, pushing diesel more than 2 dollars above its 3.76 dollar price the day before that war began.
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A record built on crude costs
The national average for on-highway diesel reached 5.85 dollars a gallon, about 1.55 dollars a litre, passing the 5.81 dollar record set in June 2022, CBS News reported, while regular gasoline averaged 4.15 dollars a gallon after a 4 cent weekly rise. AAA tied the move to crude costs rather than seasonal demand, with Brent trading at 95.55 dollars a barrel on Thursday afternoon and the US benchmark around 91.50 dollars. Rystad Energy senior vice president Susan Bell said 'The everyday consumer will see higher diesel prices in the consumer goods they purchase.' CBS News put the extra fuel cost to an American household since the start of the Iran war at 741 dollars.[1]
A second front: Ukraine's refinery strikes
NPR reported that the record price also reflects Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries, which have further strained fuel exports from the region alongside the Iran war's disruption of the Strait of Hormuz. GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said the increase matters because diesel powers much of the US industrial supply chain through trains, tractors and trucks, and that the added cost is now trickling down through the economy. Diesel cost 3.76 dollars a gallon the day before the Iran war began, NPR said, meaning the price has climbed by more than 2 dollars since; De Haan added that the increase risks raising the cost of farming, and eventually food, because so much farm equipment relies on diesel, and that school districts are already facing higher costs from the diesel that fuels their bus fleets.[2]
Two accountings of the same benchmark
The two reports describe complementary pressure points behind the same national number: CBS News's household-level estimate of a cost increase of 741 dollars since the Iran war began sits alongside NPR's gallon-level accounting of a rise of more than 2 dollars from diesel's pre-war price of 3.76 dollars, while Brent crude near 95.55 dollars a barrel supplies the crude-cost backdrop AAA cited for both fuels. NPR's addition of Ukraine's refinery strikes names a second supply front beyond the Strait of Hormuz disruption that AAA and CBS News tied the price move to, and De Haan's trains-tractors-trucks framing gives the household cost CBS News reported its mechanism through farming and freight.[1], [2]
