GAS PRICE DECLINE REACHES 11TH WEEK, PRICES NOW $1.20 BELOW PEAK
Gas Price Drop Continues... For Now
For the eleventh straight week, the nation’s average gas price has fallen, declining 5.0 cents from a week ago to $3.81 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 39.8 cents from a month ago but 69.1 cents higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has risen 7.3 cents in the last week and stands at $5.04 per gallon.
“The national average has declined for another week, extending the slide for the eleventh straight week. Gas prices are now $1.20 per gallon lower than mid-June with Americans spending $450 million less on gasoline every day as a result,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Some issues have developed that we’re keeping a close eye on, including the shut down of the largest refinery in the Midwest. While that refinery may get back online sooner rather than later, it’s not impossible that down the road the situation could impact prices in the region. For the rest of the country, however, we’ll continue to see prices moderate. This is of course subject to hurricane season, and it does appear that the tropics are starting to see some activity, so there’s no guarantee the decline will continue.”
OIL PRICES
In early Monday trade, oil prices were mixed, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil up 19 cents to $93.25 per barrel, up some $6 per barrel from last Monday’s $87.66 per barrel. Brent crude oil was up 2 cents to $101.01 per barrel, up closer to $8 from last Monday’s $93.50 per barrel level. OPEC has openly discussed cutting oil production, blaming the possibility of an economic slowdown for possible cuts, while at the same time, Iran has been close to agreeing to a new nuclear with Western powers, likely drawing the ire of major producer Saudi Arabia.
According to Baker Hughes, last week’s U.S. rig count was up by 3 rigs to 765, and was 257 rigs higher than a year ago. The Canadian rig count was unchanged at 201, but was 54 rigs higher than a year ago.
OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTS
According to the Energy Information Administration, crude oil inventories fell 3.3 million barrels last week, to 6% below the five year average for this time of year. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell 8.1 million barrels, and now stands 27% below its year ago level. Gasoline inventories were unchanged over the last week, while distillate inventories fell 700,000 barrels to 24% below the five year average for this time of year. Implied gasoline demand fell 914,000bpd to 8.43 million barrels, while refinery utilization increased 0.3 percentage points. Gasoline production fell to 9.4 million barrels per day, while distillate fuel production rose to 5.2 million barrels per day. Total U.S. petroleum inventories are now down 43.3 million barrels from a year ago, or 3.4% lower. Including the SPR, inventories are down 11.3%.
FUEL DEMAND
According to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy card, U.S. retail gasoline demand saw a decline last week (Sun-Sat), falling 1.6%. Broken down by PADD region, demand fell 1.5% in PADD 1, fell 0.8% in PADD 2, fell 4.1% in PADD 3, fell 4.0% in PADD 4 and fell 0.3% in PADD 5.
GAS PRICE TRENDS
The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.59 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $3.49, $3.69, $3.39 and $3.79 rounding out the top five most common prices.
The median U.S. gas price is $3.65 per gallon, down 12 cents from last week and about 16 cents lower than the national average.
The top 10% of stations in the country average $5.14 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.17 per gallon.
The states with the lowest average prices: Arkansas ($3.32), Mississippi ($3.34) and Texas ($3.34).
The states with the highest average prices: Hawaii ($5.26), California ($5.22) and Nevada ($4.85).