What is NY Harbor ULSD?

NY Harbor ULSD is the price of ultra-low sulfur diesel delivered into New York Harbor. The harbor is the delivery point of NYMEX's main US diesel futures contract, so the name covers two linked prices: the futures price traders quote through the day, and the spot price for physical cargoes in the harbor, which EIA publishes daily. On Nov 3, 2026, New York Harbor ULSD spot was $4.823 a gallon and Gulf Coast $4.525, so the harbor sat 29.8 cents over the Gulf. Both are untaxed wholesale prices, a long way below the DOE diesel number at the pump.

What the name means

ULSD is ultra-low sulfur diesel, which EIA defines for its price series as No. 2 diesel with 15 parts per million of sulfur or less. It is the fuel every highway truck in the country burns. New York Harbor is, in EIA's words, the location specified in spot or futures contracts for delivery of a product in New York Harbor: the port and terminal complex spanning New York and New Jersey. Quotes are in dollars per gallon. Multiply by 42 for a barrel.

The futures contract

NYMEX's New York Harbor ULSD contract covers 42,000 gallons, quoted in dollars per gallon, for delivery in the harbor. It began life as the heating oil contract and switched to the ULSD specification starting with the May 2013 contract, per EIA, which is why older charts and EIA's own futures table still call it "No. 2 Heating Oil (New York Harbor)". Like the other product contracts it expires on the last business day of the month before delivery, and the price in a headline is usually the front month, the contract with the earliest delivery date. EIA's futures table carries the 2:30 p.m. NYMEX close and stops at April 5, 2024; EIA no longer publishes NYMEX futures prices, so the free public daily record of the harbor is its spot price.

Spot: the physical cargo price

Spot is the price for a cargo of physical ULSD in the harbor for prompt delivery. The trade quotes it as the futures price plus or minus a basis, a differential that reflects how tight or loose the harbor itself is that day. EIA publishes daily spot prices for New York Harbor and the U.S. Gulf Coast, sourced from Refinitiv, an LSEG business, and releases them in batches, so the newest print can trail by several days. This site charts both hubs daily from July 2021.

Why the harbor usually prices over the Gulf Coast

More US diesel is refined along the Texas and Louisiana coast than anywhere else. The harbor sits at the far end of the supply chain: product reaches it by pipeline from Gulf Coast refineries and by tanker from overseas, and the cost of getting it there shows up as a premium. Across the 1,326 trading days this site carries from Jul 9, 2021 to Nov 3, 2026, New York Harbor ULSD priced over the Gulf Coast on 1,285 (97%), by a median 7.3 cents a gallon. The widest gap was $1.403 on Nov 10, 2022.

The premium widens when the East Coast runs short. The two widest stretches in this site's record came in May and November 2022. EIA's weekly count of East Coast distillate stocks had fallen to 20.97 million barrels in the week ending May 27, 2022, at the time the lowest in a record that starts in 1990. A thin inventory leaves the harbor price to do the work of pulling in cargoes, and the premium can jump by a dollar a gallon in days. Low stocks alone do not set it, though: EIA's count hit a new low of 19.32 million barrels in the week ending Aug 28, 2026, while the harbor premium stayed far below its 2022 peak. The diesel spot price page tables the gap by year, with each year's median, the days the harbor priced over the Gulf, and the widest and narrowest day.

From the harbor to the pump

A harbor price is not what a truck pays. Between the two sit the terminal rack, where tanker trucks load for delivery, the federal and state fuel taxes, and the cost of running a station. A move in the harbor tends to show up first at pumps in the Central Atlantic region, closest to the harbor, and reaches the DOE number over days to weeks. Retail, rack and spot walks that ladder rung by rung.

Worked example: the harbor and the pump in one week

For the week of Nov 2, 2026, Central Atlantic (PADD 1B) pump diesel, the survey region around the harbor, averaged $6.486 a gallon. New York Harbor ULSD spot on Nov 2, 2026, was $4.677, or $196.43 a barrel, so the pump sat $1.809 over the harbor. The US average that week was $6.292. Federal diesel tax is 24.4 cents a gallon and state taxes and fees averaged 35.9 cents in EIA's July 2026 table, so roughly 60 cents of the gap is tax at the national average rate. The rest is freight, storage, the rack markup and the station, plus any timing gap between a daily spot print and a Monday pump survey.

Reading a NY Harbor ULSD quote

• Unit. Dollars per gallon, untaxed. A $5.000 quote is $210.00 a barrel.
• Futures or spot. A screen price during the day is usually the front-month future; EIA's daily figure is the physical spot.
• Against crude. Divide the crude price by 42 and subtract it from the ULSD price to get the crack spread, the market price of refining. How do crude oil futures move diesel prices? follows that chain back to the barrel.
• Against the Gulf. Harbor minus Gulf Coast is the cost of moving fuel north and how tight the East Coast is. A negative gap is rare.

Fuel surcharges peg to the DOE pump number, not to the harbor. Monday Diesel reports these prices as EIA publishes them and does not forecast them, and none of this is a view on when to buy fuel.

Monday Diesel is a free weekly read of the DOE diesel number and what it does per mile. Built entirely from EIA's public data, in your inbox before dispatch, one email a week.