5.85 a gallon Friday. It broke the record that stood since June 2022, the same day crude closed its best week since July.
Those are the same story. Only one of them shows up in your tank.
The Number
GasBuddy called it Friday. 5.85 national average, past the old record of 5.82 set in June 2022. AAA landed on the same 5.85 the same day off a completely different dataset.
On GasBuddy's ladder:
- Today...5.85
- Last September...3.70
2.15 more a gallon. Same fuel, same nozzle.
Before Somebody Says It
This is a record on the sign, not adjusted for inflation. A 2022 dollar bought more than a 2026 dollar does, so in real money 2022 still hurt worse. Nominal record. It is still the most this country has ever averaged.
And an average is an average. Somebody reading this paid over 6 yesterday. Somebody else paid under 5.60.
Crude alone doesn't explain it either. GasBuddy names tight refining capacity and thin inventories right alongside the geopolitics. Diesel has been outrunning crude, and that's a refining story more than a barrel story.
What It Costs
- 300 gallons across both tanks is 1,755. That same fill last September was 1,110.
- At 6 mpg you're burning 98 cents of fuel every mile. Last year it was 62.
- Hotshot, 1 ton and a loaded gooseneck at 10 mpg, a 500 mile run is 292. Last year 185.
Run your own mileage. The arithmetic doesn't change, only the number at the bottom.
Nobody's rate went up 2.15 a gallon this year.
It Makes This Industry, Not Just Moves It
An all diesel spread burns around 9,500 gallons a day on a small job and multiples of that on a big one. At 5.85 the small one alone is about 55,000 dollars of fuel in a day.
Now the part that gets left out. Most modern fleets are dual fuel or full electric and displace a big share of that with field gas off the same pad. At 60 percent substitution a 20,000 gallon a day fleet cuts 12,000 gallons out of the bill.
This week is the entire argument for why that iron exists.
And it comes all the way around. The crude out of these wells is what gets refined into the diesel that fracs the next one.
The Part That's Backwards
WTI closed the week at 91.48, its strongest week since the middle of July.
Out here that reads like good news, and across a couple quarters it is. Higher crude is what puts rigs back to work and fills a completion calendar.
But the supply picture that lifted crude is the same one that put diesel on a record.
So the headline that eventually puts iron in your yard is the same headline emptying your fuel card today. One of those is a quarter out. The other one already happened.
The Thing About Fuel Surcharges
Surcharge schedules commonly aren't priced off the pump. They're priced off the government's weekly retail diesel number, and that comes out Monday afternoon.
So in a week where the price is climbing, the surcharge you're paid this week got built on last week's price.
When diesel is falling, that works in your favor. It's the first week of a run like this one that hurts, because you're buying today's fuel against a number set before it moved.
Worth knowing which index your surcharge keys off and how often it resets. Most guys have never been told.
The Board
- Diesel...5.85 (record)
- WTI...91.48
- Brent...96.28
- Nat Gas...2.980
OPEC+ meets Sunday, September 6, and is widely expected to leave October alone.
Who's Hiring
That week’s board carried 10 companies, and 4 of those seats needed no CDL. The current board is the one to check.
See every open seat on the North Dakota board, or check what these jobs actually pay before you call anybody.
Field Report
What's diesel at your pump right now. Town and price, that's it.
5.85 is the average. Let's see what the sign actually says where you fuel.