GAS PRICE DECLINE HITS 13 WEEKS, 1 IN 10 STATIONS BELOW $2.99/GAL

For the thirteenth consecutive week, the nation’s average gas price has fallen, declining 7.6 cents from a week ago to $3.67 per gallon today, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 stations nationwide. The national average is down 26.9 cents from a month ago but 52.3 cents higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has declined 5.5 cents in the last week and stands at $5.01 per gallon.

“We continue to see the national average price of gasoline decline, now for the thirteenth straight week. But, we’re seeing drastically different price behaviors from coast to coast, with some areas seeing noticeable increases while others are seeing decreases,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Refinery issues in California are leading to increases in areas supplied by the state’s refineries, including areas of Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and of course, California. Gasoline supply remains tight for the East Coast with some modest moves up, while prices continue to edge lower in the Plains, South and areas of the Great Lakes. For now, I believe the drop in prices will overpower the increases, leading to potentially another decline this week, but we’re in a very fragile time and certainly could see a broader move higher in the weeks ahead.”

OIL PRICES

In early Monday trade, oil prices were solidly in the black, with West Texas Intermediate crude oil up $1.48 per barrel to $88.27, slightly higher than last week Tuesday’s $87.74 per barrel start. Brent crude oil was up $1.64 in early trade to $94.48 per barrel, also a slight rise to last week’s $94.01 start. Markets have continued to reverberate as economic data continues to trickle in, and China remains stuck in Covid limbo, stifling oil demand. With the EU’s sanctions on Russian oil coming into view, oil prices may have some rally left ahead of the onset of colder weather, should the EU stick to its pledge to discontinue the use of Russian oil.

According to Baker Hughes, last week’s U.S. rig count was down by 1 rig to 759, and was 256 rigs higher than a year ago. The Canadian rig count was down 3 rigs to 205, and was 62 rigs higher than a year ago.

OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTS

According to the Energy Information Administration, last week saw an 8.8 million barrel rise in U.S. commercial oil inventories, which now stand 3.3 million barrels higher than a year ago, while the SPR fell 7.5 million barrels and is nearly 29% below its year ago level. Domestic crude oil production was unchanged at 12.1 million barrels per day as lower oil prices likely tempered the continued rise in output. Gasoline inventories edged higher, rising 400,000 barrels, but stand 2.4% lower than a year ago and are 6% below the five year average for this time of year. Distillate inventories also eked out a 100,000 barrel rise, but remain 16.3% below a year ago and 23% below the five year average for this time of year. Implied gasoline demand, a proxy for retail gasoline demand, rose 136,000 barrels to 8.73 million barrels per day, but year-to-date gasoline demand is 1.4% lower than 2021, reflected in higher prices. Refinery utilization fell 1.8 percentage points to 90.9%.

FUEL DEMAND

According to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy card, U.S. retail gasoline demand fell notably last week (Sun-Sat), declining 5.3%. Broken down by PADD region, demand fell 7.3% in PADD 1, fell 4.3% in PADD 2, fell 4.3% in PADD 3, fell 3.9% in PADD 4 and fell 5.1% in PADD 5.

GAS PRICE TRENDS

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.39 per gallon, 10 cents lower than last week, followed by $3.49, $3.29, $3.59 and $3.69 rounding out the top five most common prices.

The median U.S. gas price is $3.49 per gallon, down 10 cents from last week and about 16 cents lower than the national average.

The top 10% of stations in the country average $5.18 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $2.97 per gallon.

The states with the lowest average prices: Texas ($3.10), Arkansas ($3.12) and Mississippi ($3.13).

The states with the highest average prices: California ($5.31), Hawaii ($5.23) and Nevada ($4.84).