The National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO), a trade group representing the travel plaza industry, today said that the demand for gasoline and diesel fuel has significantly dropped in May.  According to NATSO, demand for gasoline dropped by 3% over May 2007 and demand for diesel declined by 6%.

The organization leaves little doubt that high fuel drives are the reason for reduced demand, stating that gas station owners are now paying more than $32,000 for a truckload of diesel fuel, up from $10,000 just a few years ago. Wholesale prices can increase as much as 10 to 15 cents in a single day, NATSO said. In May, retailers were paying an average 37 cents over the prior month for gasoline and an average of over 60 cents more for diesel, topping the $4 mark for the first time ever.

NATSO believes that the single most important reason for high oil prices are speculators and investment firms, which appears to be a common sense observation, given the fact that oil prices usually spike every time an analyst is quoted with a record oil price estimate. The organization said that the oil market has “attracted a new breed of speculator-non-commercial traders, such as Wall Street investment firms, pension funds, and others who have no involvement with the commodities they are buying and selling and who never intend to take delivery of a barrel of oil.”

“These non-commercial speculators, called "paper traders," now account for two-thirds of all crude oil trading, double the number active in the markets since the year 2000,” NATSO said.

According to gasbuddy.com, the national average for one gallon of regular gasoline is $4.10 today.