For the second consecutive week, the national average U.S. retail price of diesel fuel has increased. The Department of Energy reported July 12 a rise to $1.740 from last’s week’s average of $1.716.

The highest prices in the nation were again in California, where the average cost is $2.113. For the West Coast region, the price is $2.040.

Among the higher prices were $1.812 in the New England region; $1.794 in the Rocky Mountain region; and $1.810 in the Central Atlantic region.

Other average prices include the Lower Atlantic region, where the average price is $1.670; the Midwest, at $1.694; the Gulf Coast, at $1.671; and the East Coast, at $1.718.

Meanwhile, two OPEC ministers reaffirmed the cartel’s commitment to raise output next month, although concern about terrorism caused prices to hold above $40 a barrel in New York.

According to news accounts, traders became concerned at a White House warning that terrorists may be planning a major attack in the United States.

“Credible reporting” indicated al Qaida planned a large-scale attack in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said.

Some say that is not going to have an impact on oil production.

“OPEC still has a commitment to raise its quota by 500,000 barrels a day beginning in August,” the cartel’s president Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also the Indonesian energy minister, told reporters in Jakarta.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said July 10 that the price of oil was “good” and that OPEC might delay the production increase planned for August.