GAS PRICE SURGE TAKES NATIONAL AVERAGE BEYOND $5/GAL, RISE TO CONTINUE

For the eighth straight week, the nation’s average gas price has climbed, jumping 15.7 cents from a week ago to $5.01 per gallon today according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The national average is up 57.1 cents from a month ago and $1.94 per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has risen 13.8 cents in the last week and stands at $5.77 per gallon.

“For the first time ever, last week saw the national average reaching the $5 per gallon mark as nearly every one of the nation’s 50 states saw prices jump. For now, the upward momentum may slow down, but we are still just one potential jolt to supply away from heading even higher,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Gasoline demand, while rising seasonally, is still well below previous records, but remains impressive with prices in all states at record levels. Should the rise in price finally start to slow demand’s rise, we could see some breathing room, but for now, it seems like Americans are proving resilient to record highs.”

OIL PRICES

Crude oil prices were seen down in early Monday trade after inflation came in screaming higher, sending the U.S. dollar up, which traditionally sends oil lower. However, with Libya’s oil production struggling alongside Nigeria’s drop in oil production, oil’s floor has been well-established. In addition, Iran has been seen shutting down some protocols of IAEA’s monitoring program, contributing to additional geopolitical risks. While oil inventories did see a rise last week, it came at the expense of a shrinking SPR. In early Monday trade, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down $1.86 per barrel to $118.81, down just 10 cents from last Monday’s $118.91 level. Brent crude oil was down $1.59 per barrel to $120.42, less than $1 higher than last week’s $119.84 level.

According to Baker Hughes, last week’s U.S. rig count was up 6 to 733, and was 272 rigs higher than a year ago. The Canadian rig count was up 24 to 141, 48 more than a year ago.

OIL AND REFINED PRODUCT INVENTORIES

Last week saw a slight two million barrel rise in U.S. oil inventories, which stand 12% below their year ago level, while the SPR saw a drop of 7.3 million barrels, which is 17% below a year ago. Domestic oil production was unchanged at 11.9 million barrels per day. Gasoline inventories slipped by 800,000 barrels and are nearly 10% below a year ago, while implied demand jumped 222,000 bpd to 9.20 million barrels per day. Distillate inventories jumped by 2.6 million barrels but stand nearly 21% below their year ago level. Refinery utilization jumped 1.6 percentage points to 94.2%, pushing gasoline production to 10 million barrels per day.

FUEL DEMAND

According to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy card, U.S. retail gasoline demand saw a rise last week (Sun-Sat). Nationally, weekly gasoline demand rose 2.7% from the prior week, while demand rose 2.3% in PADD 1, rose 1.6% in PADD 2, rose 4.8% in PADD 3, rose 4.5% in PADD 4, and rose 4.6% in PADD 5.

GAS PRICE TRENDS

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $4.99 per gallon, up 50 cents from last week, followed by $4.89, $4.69, $4.59, and $4.79 rounding out the top five most common prices.

The median U.S. price is $4.89 per gallon, about 12 cents lower than the national average.

The top 10% of stations in the country average $6.19/gal, while the bottom 10% average $4.43/gal.

The states with the lowest average prices: Georgia ($4.47), Mississippi ($4.52), and Arkansas ($4.53).

The states with the highest prices: California ($6.42), Nevada ($5.65), and Illinois ($5.63).