Diesel futures top $5 a gallon for first time since 2022 as Russia's export ban bites
U.S. diesel futures topped $5 a gallon on Sept. 10, the first time since April 2022. New York cash diesel traded as high as $5.03, per Transport Topics, which works out to roughly $210 a barrel.
The driver is supply, not demand. Moscow banned diesel exports after Ukrainian drone strikes hit its refineries, and Middle East tension keeps a question mark over the Strait of Hormuz. Global stockpiles are thin. When the marginal barrel gets harder to find, U.S. racks move with it whether or not the crude sits in Texas.
Surcharges
Fuel surcharges are pegged to the diesel price, so a jump at the rack flows into what shippers pay carriers. That protects the truck line on paper. In practice the surcharge lags the pump by a week or two, and owner-operators fueling today eat the gap until the table resets. Check the peg date on your surcharge schedule against where the rack actually is.
California's $9.999 pumps
Some California diesel pumps hit $9.999 a gallon, GasBuddy said. Most of that gap above the national price is California's own taxes and fuel regulations stacked on the national run. Fleets working the I-5 corridor can plan fuel stops east of the state line where possible.
The $5.90 record
One reading put retail diesel at a record $5.90 a gallon. Wholesale inflation rose 0.4% last month with energy and diesel costs climbing, so the cost is already showing up past the pump in what everything ships for.
The 2027 view
The Energy Department forecasts diesel easing to $4.40 a gallon by 2027. That assumes the export bans and Gulf risk fade. Good for budgeting a multi-year contract. Don't set next week's fuel bill by it.
HVO exporters
The UK's Trade Remedies Authority set a final duty of £258.10 to £266.68 a tonne on hydrotreated vegetable oil biodiesel from the U.S., ruling the imports were subsidized and hurt UK producers. American renewable-diesel makers who lean on export volume just lost margin into a British market, one more reason the barrels stay home and the domestic diesel picture stays tight.
What to watch
Whether Russia's export ban is short or sticks, and any move around the Strait of Hormuz. Both feed the diesel curve directly. Watch the lag between the rack and your surcharge reset, because the faster the pump climbs the more that gap costs the truck fueling today. And watch whether crude follows diesel higher or the spread stays this wide, which is where the refiner is making its money right now.