Bloomberg Surveillance · Friday, September 4, 2026
The cost of diesel fuel has seen a significant increase globally, with prices reaching elevated levels in both the U.S. and the UK. This surge is attributed to supply constraints, including the impact of the war and the end of Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases. Furthermore, high demand for energy, particularly for AI data center construction, is expected to keep prices elevated through the remainder of the year.
“The Times has a piece today about the cost of diesel being up. And Bloomberg has a piece about the cost of LNG in Bangladesh, $ 28 per human BTU. That's the equivalent of $ 168 a barrel for diesel, roughly. And so, you know, Qatar being offline has cost everybody a lot of money. It's a lot of pressure on the diesel market.”
“The SPR releases are coming to an end, no matter what the president says. The IEA releases are coming to an end. If China goes back and adds back its 5 million barrels a day of imports, we've got a real issue of prices that will continue through the rest of the year.”
“I'm really interested in what happens to energy costs and what that does to the seemingly completely inelastic spending that they have on the AI data center front, as well as what the spillover might be on the manufacturing side where they also are going to be seeing the pressure of higher energy costs.”