Diesel hits $6.52 record as G7 releases 100 million reserve barrels and Saudi pipeline returns to 80%

Diesel hit a record $6.52 a gallon in the US last week, up from an average of $3.63 at the start of 2025. The G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of reserve diesel, and Saudi Arabia has brought its East-West Pipeline back above 80% capacity, roughly 4.5 million barrels a day of crude moving to Red Sea ports.

For jobbers and haulers, the record is already in the books. Pitt County Schools in North Carolina watched its bulk diesel go from $3.50 to $5.46 a gallon in 90 days, a jump of more than 50%, and its average delivery cost rose from $22,000 to between $36,000 and $41,000. A district that size is now pricing out propane buses. Truckers have stopped work in protest. A missed fuel surcharge on one lane can wipe out a week's margin at these numbers.

The reserve release

The announced supply is already pulling on the paper market. WTI fell 3.78% and Brent dropped below $100 on the reserve-release talks, with the Saudi pipeline restoration adding to the pressure.

The physical market is going the other way. Dated Brent, Europe's main physical benchmark, pushed above $120 even as ICE Brent slipped toward $101, a sign that barrels you can actually load are still scarce. China reinstating its refined-product export ban tightened things further. Crude could ease if that reserve diesel lands and the Strait of Hormuz stays open, but the gap between paper and physical says relief at the rack may lag the screen.

The overcharge probe

Five US House members called out 7-Eleven and Circle K after a Guardian investigation found both chains frequently charge more at the register or pump than the price posted on the shelf or the outdoor fuel sign. Representative Becca Balint called the practice "enraging" and said it forces customers to fact-check every receipt.

For c-store operators, this becomes a channel problem even if your own signs are honest. Scrutiny on the two largest chains tends to pull in state weights-and-measures regulators and class-action lawyers, and they do not stop at the logo on the canopy. Worth auditing your pump-to-POS price sync before someone else does it for you.

Heating season

Heating oil hit $4.79 a gallon, up 113%. Heating oil is the same distillate cut as diesel, so the record at the pump could reach home-heat and propane customers across the Northeast as temperatures drop. Operators carrying winter delivery contracts signed at lower numbers should check their hedges now.

What to watch

Whether the 100 million barrels of G7 diesel actually reach tank farms or stay a headline. The paper-physical gap on Brent, which will tell you if rack prices follow the screen down or hold up. And whether the overcharge story spreads from the two big chains into wider fuel-sign enforcement. Baker Hughes put the US rig count at 598, up 49 from a year ago, with oil rigs up one to 456, so more crude is being drilled. The tightness right now is downstream of the refinery, in the distillate barrel itself.