Diesel Prices Soar Amid Oil Market Volatility

The average retail price of diesel rose to $5.643 per gallon as of April 6, according to the Department of Energy, up 24.2 cents from the previous week.

Prices are now just over $2 higher than a year ago and $1.582 above levels seen two years ago.

Average prices are nearing $6 per gallon in several regions, including New England and the Central Atlantic.

West Coast prices continue to be the highest in the country. California diesel prices jumped nearly 70 cents in two weeks to $7.567 per gallon.

The lowest prices were in the Midwest at $5.304 per gallon.

New Index Tracks What Fleets Actually Pay

A separate fuel index suggests diesel costs may already be exceeding 2022 peak levels, briefly surpassing the June 2022 energy-crisis high of $5.50 per gallon last week.

The new Samsara Fuel Spend Index uses the fleet technology provider’s transaction-level data to show what fleets are actually spending on fuel after negotiated rates, discounts, and surcharges.

(By comparison, Energy Information Administration data tracks the average retail price at the pump, including taxes.)

Samsara’s Weekly Fuel Market Briefing for the week of March 30 noted that diesel had surged to $5.31 per gallon, and that it had was up by 25% between March 9 and March 30.

“52.1% of the total diesel cost increase since Dec. 29 has been packed into just … three weeks,” wrote Samsara’s Kelly Soderlund.

And Samsara’s preliminary numbers for week 14 showed diesel hitting $5.59, surpassing its previous high of $5.50 per gallon in 2022.

The 2022 peak was a sharp supply-shock spike that reversed within weeks, Soderlund wrote, but that’s not expected to happen this time.

“The question is no longer where costs settle. It’s how far past the 2022 record they go.”

Middle East Conflict Driving Oil Volatility

Driving all this are the volatile crude oil prices triggered by the war in the Middle East. Since the February 28 attack on Iran, virtually no traffic has been transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas flows.

Even though the U.S. in 2025 set a new record for crude oil production, driven by production in the Permian basin in West Texas, the Middle East Gulf was nevertheless the source for 8% of 2025 U.S. crude oil imports, according to the Department of Energy.

Much of the crude oil produced in the U.S. is exported. Most U.S. crude is “light sweet” crude, but most U.S. refineries were built to handle the heavier crude oil that is imported.

The DOE’s Energy Information Administration reported that Brent crude futures rose from $61 per barrel at the start of the year to $118 by the end of the first quarter — the largest inflation-adjusted quarterly increase since 1988.