EIA: diesel benchmark rises $0.076 to $6.352 — the Rockies set a record at $6.521

The national average price for on-highway diesel rose $0.076 to $6.352 a gallon for the week ending Oct. 26 — the second consecutive weekly increase in the benchmark most fuel surcharges are calculated from — according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Oct. 27. The average stood at $6.276 a week earlier and $6.179 the week before that, and it is now $2.634 higher than a year ago. It remains $0.177 below the all-time record of $6.529 set in the week ending Sept. 21.

The increases were led by the regions drivers watch most. The Lower Atlantic posted the largest weekly gain, up $0.150 to $5.890, and the Midwest rose $0.128 to $6.480. The East Coast average rose $0.095 to $6.079, and the Gulf Coast — still the cheapest of the five petroleum districts — rose $0.048 to $5.951. The Rocky Mountain average rose $0.099 to $6.521, the highest mark ever recorded for that region, according to Capital Press on Oct. 27, reporting the EIA update; the Rockies district covers Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

The West was the exception. The West Coast average fell $0.065 to $7.329, the West Coast outside California fell $0.045 to $6.614, and California itself fell $0.087 to $8.155 — still the highest price in the EIA table by a wide margin. Inside the East Coast, the two northern subregions also eased: New England fell $0.049 to $6.421 and the Central Atlantic fell $0.012 to $6.496, even as the district average rose on the strength of the Lower Atlantic gain.

Gasoline moved the other way. The U.S. average for regular gasoline fell $0.015 to $4.269 a gallon in the same EIA update, which puts diesel more than $2 a gallon above gasoline — $2.083 on the EIA's own figures. That split is the defining feature of this fuel market: diesel blew past its 2022 record of $5.81 a gallon this fall while gasoline remains well below its own 2022 high, and the two fuels no longer rise and fall together.

Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, traced the divergence to refining rather than crude in an F3 conversation reported by FreightWaves on Oct. 27. Diesel's squeeze, he argued, comes from lost global refining capacity and Russia's pullback on diesel exports after the Ukrainian drone campaign degraded its refineries — Russia produces about 10% of the world's diesel — while crude itself is comparatively available. He also warned that the weekly benchmark understates what carriers in expensive regions actually pay: regional spreads can run $0.40 to $0.60 a gallon, wholesale rack prices have moved sharply inside single days this year, and a surcharge pegged to a weekly national average cannot keep pace with either.

The downstream arithmetic is already moving. The latest TD Cowen/AFS Freight Index, reported by Land Line on Oct. 27, predicts the highest truckload rates since the first quarter of 2022 and less-than-truckload rates exceeding 80% above the January 2018 baseline for the first time ever. AFS Logistics says fuel surcharges will not show a material decrease even if crude oil and fuel prices normalize, and its CEO, Andy Dyer, pointed to the reason: inventories are low and refineries are at capacity, so diesel and jet fuel supplies must catch up before prices recede. Nor does the Russian supply deal change this week's number: as CDLWire reported this morning, Russian refiners are pushing output toward 180,000 tons a day under the deal's export quotas, but Standard Chartered warns the U.S.-bound barrels are reallocated from other buyers rather than new production, and the first cargo is not due in New York until Nov. 7.

The practical takeaway: this benchmark is the number your next fuel surcharge is built on, so a second straight weekly rise — $0.097 last week, $0.076 this week — flows straight into surcharge tables over the coming cycle, and it lands unevenly. A carrier fueling in the Midwest or the Rockies is paying at or near record levels this week, while West Coast prices eased; price your lanes and choose your fuel stops on the regional figures, not the national headline. And treat the national average as a floor for planning, not a quote: in a refining-driven market, the gap between the weekly index and the pump price in an expensive region is real money out of the same margin the surcharge is supposed to protect.