Motorists in all but eight states saw gasoline prices rise in the last week while the nation’s average price rose 2 cents to $2.28 per gallon, a stark turnaround from the week prior when twenty states saw average prices rise as the national trend shows its hottest gain of the summer.
“The turnaround in gasoline prices comes as gasoline demand hits its peak of the summer driving season,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. “Coupled with rising oil prices, the situation has led to a rise in wholesale gasoline prices, which fueled much of the rise, as stations passed along higher prices. However, motorists shouldn’t get used to seeing these types of increases – we saw many one-time adjustments in the last week that we aren’t likely to see again this week.”
The jump nationally was led by large price hikes in areas that routinely see major volatility, with prices in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Florida seeing mid-week spikes of over 10 cents per gallon. Week on week increases were led by Delaware (up 6.5 cents), New Jersey (up 5 cents) and Pennsylvania (up 4 cents).
The top ten states with the cheapest gasoline prices are: South Carolina ($1.97), Alabama ($2.00), Mississippi ($2.00), Oklahoma ($2.00), Arkansas ($2.03), Tennessee ($2.05), Louisiana ($2.06), Virginia ($2.08), Texas ($2.09) and Missouri ($2.10).
The top ten states with the most expensive gasoline prices are: Hawaii ($3.01), California ($2.90), Washington ($2.80), Alaska ($2.72), Oregon ($2.65), Nevada ($2.60), Pennsylvania ($2.50), Idaho ($2.48), Connecticut ($2.42) and Utah ($2.42).
The top ten states with the most drastic gas price variance per gallon, called a “spread” in industry parlance, are: California ($1.10 per gallon), Hawaii ($1.09), Nevada ($0.83), Illinois ($0.82), Alaska ($0.75), Arizona ($0.72), Washington ($0.71), New York ($0.70), Oregon ($0.70) and Wyoming ($0.67)
Oil prices, meanwhile, closed out last week little changed with West Texas Intermediate crude oil finishing at $45.77 per barrel. Prices rose in early Monday trading to $46.32 per barrel after both OPEC and non-OPEC countries met. As a result of the meeting, OPEC announced that Nigeria would be joining in previously announced production cuts. However, should oil prices rally back over $50 per barrel, it is highly likely that U.S. production and rig counts would continue to rise, ruining OPEC’s attempts to boost prices. Meanwhile, government data shows that, overall, oil inventories are still very healthy but over 40 million barrels below levels seen in March, a sign that oil markets may be coming into better balance.