Heating Fuel at Record as European Diesel Surges: Energy Markets

European consumers will probably pay the most ever to run diesel cars and heat their homes this year, at a time when unemployment is at the highest in more than a decade and economic confidence is falling.

Diesel at the pump in 27 nations averaged 1.362 euro a liter ($7.22 a gallon) in 2011, up 6 percent from the record year of 2008, weekly data from the European Commission show. Wholesale gasoil averaged $929.93 a metric ton this year, compared with $920.75 for 2008, the highest mean for a full year, according to ICE Futures Europe data. The two similar fuels, known as middle distillates, have jumped as declining refinery output leads to lower stockpiles before the winter, analysts at Citigroup Inc. and Barclays Plc said.