Average gasoline prices in the U.S. have risen for the sixth straight week, posting a 6.5 cent per gallon rise over the last week to $2.62 per gallon, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 10 million individual price reports covering 135,000 gas stations across the United States. The average price of diesel rose 1.1 cents to $3.02 per gallon.
“Gasoline prices have increased in all fifty states in the last week as refineries continue working toward cleaner, more expensive gasoline and as oil prices have continued creeping higher,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “There shouldn’t be any surprises that prices continue to migrate higher given the warnings in the past few months, though that doesn’t make it any easier for motorists to digest higher gas prices. Unfortunately, as seasonal issues continue to weigh on markets along with higher oil prices, it’s likely we’ll continue to be in this pattern for at least a few more weeks.”
Crude oil prices were virtually identical to their week-ago levels at press time Monday morning, with West Texas Intermediate up just one cent versus last Monday morning at $58.67 per barrel while Brent crude oil was down 62 cents per barrel versus a week ago to $66.73.
Last week’s report from the Energy Information Administration showed a trifecta of sorts with a large decline in crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories. Oil stockpiles fell nearly 10 million barrels while gasoline saw a drop of nearly 5 million barrels and distillate inventories were off just a touch over 4 million barrels. Refinery utilization, a gauge of how much capacity refineries are running at, was up 1.3% to 88.9%, led by another large gain at East Coast refineries, which rose 5.6% from week ago levels. All regions saw broadly higher utilization rates in the last week, a promising sign, though gasoline inventories still remained challenged as a result of a surge in demand to 9.41 million barrels of gasoline per day.
At gas pumps, nearly all areas saw another lift in prices, with 7 states rising double digits: Arizona, California, Missouri, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and South Carolina, thanks to lingering refinery issues along the West Coast, which has started to show up at the pump. California is now halfway to an average of $4 per gallon, as the state saw its average shoot up to $3.50 per gallon. The most common gas price in the country was $2.49 per gallon, while $2.59 per gallon was right behind in second place. The average price of the top 10% of gas stations rose to $3.34 per gallon, while the nation’s lowest 10% of stations averaged $2.26 per gallon. Just 10 stations were reported to still have gas priced under $2 per gallon as of Friday (0% of U.S. total), signaling the end is near for such prices after having reached 44% of stations to start 2019.
Gas prices will likely continue to rise in most areas, especially the West Coast due to supply tightness amidst the change to cleaner-burning gasoline, while greater than 9 in 10 gas stations will likely see higher prices by next Monday.