Diesel prices continued to climb on Tuesday, Sept. 27, even though the price of crude oil dipped following signs that the world supply was in better shape than anticipated.

ProMiles was reporting a national average of $2.823 per gallon on Tuesday, Sept. 27, up slightly from the previous day. Meanwhile, AAA was reporting an average of $2.866 per gallon.

California, Washington, Utah and Idaho were still reporting prices above $3 a gallon.

Light, sweet crude was trading close to the $65 mark in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had surged above $66 earlier in the day, but fell back after Saudi Arabia announced there were no takers for the extra supplies offered by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Reuters reported that OPEC decided to make its spare output capacity available at its meeting on Sept. 19, but as of Sept. 27, no one had asked for it. OPEC said the oil would be available for three months beginning Oct. 1.

U.S. refineries in the Gulf Coast region are slowly beginning to get back on their feet after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, although 1.5 million barrels per day of production still remains shut down, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Bloomberg reported that refineries in Port Arthur, TX, and Lake Charles, LA, – the areas hit hardest by Rita – may be offline for more than a month, which could spark further price increases as supplies tighten heading into winter.