US Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel Retail Price (2007–2026)

The US Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) Retail Price is the national average pump price for No. 2 diesel meeting the 0–15 ppm sulfur standard, published weekly by the EIA since 2007. ULSD is the modern on-highway diesel — the mandated specification for highway vehicles since the 2006–2010 phase-in — so for recent years it is effectively the diesel price. It peaked at $5.81 in June 2022 and sits at $4.67 in mid-2026.

Dataset: US Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel Retail Price (2007–2026) · Updated 2026-07-27

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) · series EMD_EPD2DXL0_PTE_NUS_DPG

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

A value of 4.668 means the national average ULSD pump price was $4.67 per gallon that week.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.

EIA Direct API Access

The underlying data comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration API v2 (route petroleum/pri/gnd, series EMD_EPD2DXL0_PTE_NUS_DPG). An EIA API key is free from the EIA developer portal.

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/eia/us-ulsd-retail-price.csv

This URL returns the complete, cleaned dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool — no key required.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/eia/us-ulsd-retail-price.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(f"Latest: {df['ulsd_price'].iloc[-1]:.3f} USD/gallon")
print(df.tail())

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/eia/us-ulsd-retail-price.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

tail(df)
summary(df$ulsd_price)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

Collected on the EIA weekly retail survey since the ULSD transition, released each Monday afternoon, all taxes included.

This dataset is refreshed daily (Mon–Sat) via automated pull from the EIA API v2; new observations appear with each source release.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

• Series start. 2007 by construction — ULSD is a post-2006-regulation specification with no earlier history.
• Release cadence. Weekly, Monday afternoons.
• Relationship to generic diesel. Effectively identical for recent years as ULSD became the universal highway standard.
• Revisions. Rarely revised.
• Known gaps. None since inception in February 2007.

Common Pitfalls When Using This Series

1. Expecting pre-2007 data. ULSD did not exist as a retail grade before the sulfur rule; the series cannot extend earlier.
2. Using generic diesel for recent freight analysis. ULSD is what trucks buy today; the broader No. 2 series blurs the specification.
3. Ignoring the spot lead. NY Harbor ULSD spot moves first; the weekly retail print follows with markup and tax.
4. Treating the winter distillate squeeze as anomalous. Heating-oil competition for distillate output is a recurring seasonal driver.

Historical Regimes

2007–2008 — Launch into the spike. The series began just as diesel surged to its 2008 peak near $4.70.

2009–2014 — High plateau. ULSD held a persistent premium over gasoline through the shale build-out.

2015–2020 — Glut and collapse. Prices fell to the $2 range, bottoming at $1.98 in early 2016; the 2020 demand shock cut them further.

2021–2026 — Distillate crunch. Tight distillate inventories drove ULSD to $5.81 (June 2022), normalizing toward $4.67 by mid-2026.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.

Explore the Eco3min Commodity Data Hub

Sources

• U.S. Energy Information Administration — Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices (series EMD_EPD2DXL0_PTE_NUS_DPG)

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). US Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel Retail Price (2007–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/us-ulsd-retail-price-dataset/