US Diesel Hits Record $6.05 a Gallon as Saudi Pipeline Drone Strike Threatens Months-Long Outage

Since Costco started rationing Kirkland Signature motor oil on September 14, the broader fuel picture has gotten worse, not better. National average diesel prices hit a record $6.05 a gallon, according to AAA data reported by NPR and the Associated Press, up from $5.85 a week earlier and just $3.70 a year ago. That's the first time diesel has ever crossed $6 nationally.

The prior record was $5.82 a gallon, set in June 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to fuel-tracking service GasBuddy. Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, said diesel has stayed above $5 a gallon since July 15, putting 2026 on pace to be the most expensive year for diesel on record.

Crude oil is the reason. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded above $105 a barrel as of the diesel record, per NPR, and Daily Wire reported it climbing further to $109 as of a recent Monday morning. Both figures are up sharply from roughly $70 a barrel before the U.S.-Iran war began in late February.

A Saudi Pipeline Just Got Hit

The newest development: a major Saudi Arabian pipeline was shut down Friday after a drone attack damaged a pump station, according to Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. That pipeline had been serving as an alternate route for crude that would otherwise move through the Strait of Hormuz.

"The longer the shutdown, the higher the price," Lipow said. "Judging from the online pictures, it will take months to repair."

The Strait of Hormuz traffic is already thin. Preliminary shipping data cited by Epoch Times showed just four commodity vessels transiting the strait on a recent Thursday, compared with a 10-day average of about 15. Before the war, roughly 900,000 barrels a day of diesel and 350,000 barrels a day of jet fuel moved through the Persian Gulf, according to cargo-tracker Vortexa, representing about 10% and 20% of global seaborne supply respectively.

Refiners Are Chasing Bigger Margins on Gas and Diesel

The same dynamic squeezing Costco's motor oil supply is hitting diesel: refiners are prioritizing gasoline and diesel output because the margins are better, according to CarBuzz, citing a Newsweek report from September 16. That report quoted Tom Kloza, chief energy advisor at Gulf Oil, warning that wholesale price increases haven't fully caught up to what drivers are paying at the pump yet.

Claudio Galimberti, chief economist at Rystad Energy, told the Epoch Times the ripple effects go beyond the pump. "All sectors of the economy are affected by diesel," Galimberti said. "This is one of the reasons why the government bond yields in the United States are so high, it's the expectation that inflation will continue to go up."

Trump's Midterm Comment

According to NPR's reporting on the Associated Press wire, President Trump has repeatedly tried to downplay the war's economic fallout, but he also said oil prices likely won't come down until after November's midterm elections. That's a notably direct admission from a White House that has otherwise minimized the war's cost to consumers.

Investing Live's coverage framed the entire price shock as a direct result of what it called the administration's "failure to account for systemic risks," attributing that judgment to unnamed "critics" and unnamed "market analysts." No named economist or official is quoted making that causal claim in that piece, which is a meaningfully weaker standard than Lipow, De Haan, Galimberti and Kloza going on record with specific numbers.

The fair counterpoint here, one a reasonable Trump supporter would raise: prices are still below inflation-adjusted historical peaks. NPR itself noted that diesel hit $4.74 a gallon before the 2008 financial crisis, equivalent to about $7.20 today, and 2022's $5.82 record would run about $6.56 in 2026 dollars. By that measure, today's $6.05 average isn't yet the worst diesel has ever been for American drivers, even if it's a nominal record.

That argument doesn't erase the trend line. Gasoline hit $4.29 a gallon nationally the same day diesel set its record, per AAA. With the Saudi pipeline offline for what Lipow estimates could be months, and no announced end to the U.S.-Iran conflict, the open question is whether crude keeps grinding toward $110 a barrel or finds a ceiling before the midterms Trump himself flagged as the earliest realistic relief date.