Fredericksburg Leader

For the first time in the last month, the nation’s average gas price has increased, rising 6.2 cents from a week ago to $3.78 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 down 11.5 cents from a month ago but stands 37.8 cents per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has risen 3.4 cents in the last week and stands at $5.32 per gallon.

“Just over half of the nation’s 50 states saw gasoline prices rise last week, pulling the national average back up for the time being due to big jumps in the Great Lakes and continued increases in New England and mid-Atlantic states,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “For now, the rise in the Great Lakes, brought on by tight supply, has already started to ease, and declines should start again. In the northeastern U.S., prices are likely to inch up a bit more. National diesel supply remains tight, but supplies of diesel did see a slight rise last week. The majority of stations, especially away from the East Coast and Northeast, should have very few issues with diesel supply, though some stations in those regions could see diesel delivery times slip. Brief outages at a limited number of stations are possible, but with refineries continuing to churn out product and maintenance wrapping up, I’m optimistic the situation will improve.”

OIL PRICES

Oil saw a strong rally last week as inventories continued to decline and SPR releases slowed down, with West Texas Intermediate crude ending the week above $90 per barrel, with prices giving up a small portion of that rally in early Monday trade. At presstime, WTI was down just a penny to $92.60 per barrel, while Brent crude was down a penny to $98.56 per barrel. Renewed concerns over China’s sharp Covid policies overpowered a decline in the U.S. dollar, with Apple reporting that the impacts would hit its iPhone line with shipping delays. China doubled-down on its tough Covid approach, curbing hopes that China would gradually re-open its economy fully.

According to Baker Hughes, last week’s U.S. rig count was up by 2 rigs to 770 and was 220 rigs higher than a year ago. The Canadian rig count was down 3 rigs to 209 and was 49 rigs higher than a year ago.

OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTS

Last week’s report from the Energy Information Administration showed a notable drop in oil inventories of 3.1 million barrels, while the SPR saw a drop of 1.9 million barrels. Domestic crude oil production fell 100,000bpd to 11.9 million barrels per day, just 400,000bpd higher than the same time a year ago. Gasoline inventories fell 1.3 million barrels and stand 6% below the average range for this time of year, while distillate inventories rose a meager 400,000 barrels but remained 19% below the average range for this time of year. Implied gasoline demand fell 271,000bpd to 8.66 million barrels, while refinery utilization rose 1.7 percentage points to 90.6%. Total supplies are down by 9.8 million barrels from a year ago excluding the SPR, while including it the drop totals 222.6 million barrels.

FUEL DEMAND

According to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy card, U.S. retail gasoline demand fell last week (Sun-Sat) by 3.2%. Broken down by PADD region, demand fell 0.7% in PADD 1, fell 6.8% in PADD 2, fell 2.1% in PADD 3, fell 4.5% in PADD 4, and fell 1.2% in PADD 5.

GAS PRICE TRENDS

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.39 per gallon, down 30 cents from last week, followed by $3.89, $3.99, $3.29, and $3.79 rounding out the top five most common prices.The median U.S. gas price is $3.69 per gallon, up 12 cents from last week and about 15 cents lower than the national average.The top 10% of stations in the country average $5.23 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.01 per gallon.The states with the lowest average prices: Georgia ($3.08), Texas ($3.13), and Mississippi ($3.17).The states with the highest average prices: California ($5.35), Hawaii ($5.13), and Nevada ($4.91).

Original source can be found here.