Diesel Price Now So High In One State Gas Pumps Don’t Have Enough Space To Show It
Diesel prices have climbed so high at some California gas stations that their pumps have hit the highest price they can display.
Paris Apodaca · Sep 10, 2026 · 4 min read
Diesel prices have climbed so high at some California gas stations that their pumps have hit the highest price they can display.
Several stations owned by Arco and Shell listed diesel at $9.99 per gallon across multiple California cities including Serra Mesa and San Jose on Thursday, according to GasBuddy. Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that 3 total locations in the Golden State were showing this price, a figure down from earlier reports.
“MAXXED OUT at $9.999!!” wrote in a Thursday morning X post. “GasBuddy data showing 5 stations in California that have hit the limit and are selling diesel at the dispensers’ highest possible price: $9.999/gal.”
He posted an image showing five GasBuddy price reports at $9.99 per gallon and followed up with a one-word reaction: “yuck.”
“I will note that in this odd environment we previously reported up to 6 stations, but on further investigation some reports of 9.99 were due to the station running out of fuel, which is a common way of alerting GasBuddy users to a station out of diesel,” De Haan told the DCNF.
The reported prices come as California motorists face some of the highest diesel costs in the country. California’s statewide average reached a record $7.81 per gallon over Labor Day weekend, while San Francisco and Oakland averaged $8.23 and $8.02, respectively, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Diesel prices have also broken records nationally, with the national average reaching $5.85 per gallon last Friday, surpassing the previous record set during the 2022 energy crunch following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Acro and Shell did not each immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
“I think these prices will continue to be rare, but are possible. Many pumps only have 4 digits for their individual grade price display which could be problematic for displaying a true and accurate price unless a software update of sorts could be made,” De Haan told the DCNF.