TITUSVILLE, Pennsylvania — Diesel prices are higher than anyone wants right now and the US is working with refiners to seek ways to produce more, Energy Department official Kyle Haustveit told a conference on Tuesday, as the government presses refiners at home and abroad to increase diesel output amid a supply crunch straining transportation, agriculture and industry.
Haustveit, the Energy Department's Under Secretary, said at the Drake Forum in Titusville, Pennsylvania, that officials are working with domestic refiners to identify additional ways to increase throughput and squeeze more crude through the refining complex and bring more diesel to market, Reuters reported. Energy Secretary Chris Wright echoed the message later on Tuesday at a Houston announcement, adding that the US is also pushing shuttered domestic refineries to reopen, Reuters said.
The effort comes as US retail diesel averaged about $6.32 per gallon on October 20, according to AAA, near historically high levels following months of disruption to global fuel supply. US refiners are operating at roughly 95% to 100% of capacity, according to the American Petroleum Institute, leaving little spare room to raise output quickly. Washington is also working with India and other international partners to increase refined-product supply, and the International Energy Agency is accelerating more than 20 million barrels of diesel from previously committed emergency stocks, according to Oil Monster's summary of the push.
On supply from abroad, Russian diesel cargoes are returning to their traditional destinations after the US suspended sanctions and secured the lifting of an export ban, with at least two tankers signalling trips to Turkey and Brazil in recent days, according to shipping data from Kpler and LSEG cited by Reuters. Analysts polled by Reuters also expected US crude oil stockpiles to have fallen last week along with product inventories.
Why it matters for our readers: diesel is the working fuel of the Punjabi trucking community in the US. At about $6.32 a gallon, a 150-gallon fill costs roughly $948 (yaani about nine hundred and fifty dollars for one full truck tank), so every cent on the pump price lands directly on owner-operators' margins, freight rates and, eventually, grocery prices. Whether refiners can actually add supply — with plants already near full capacity — remains the open question officials did not answer on Tuesday.
Sources: Reuters reporting on the diesel supply crunch, including Under Secretary Kyle Haustveit's remarks at the Drake Forum in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright's remarks in Houston, October 20, 2026, published via MarineLink, Baird Maritime, SRN News and the Los Angeles Post; Oil Monster, 'U.S. Pushes Refiners for More Diesel as Capacity Tightens,' October 20, 2026.