Fredericksburg Leader

GAS PRICE DECLINE HITS FIVE WEEKS, DIESEL DECLINES OUTPACE GASOLINE

For the fifth consecutive week, the nation’s average gas price has fallen, declining 14.4 cents from a week ago to $3.21 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 56.5 cents from a month ago and 11.0 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 14.9 cents in the last week and stands at $4.91 per gallon.

“Not only has the decline in gasoline prices lasted five straight weeks, with again every state seeing a weekly decline in its average, but average diesel prices have fallen in 49 states over the last week as well. The relief is saving Americans roughly $20 per fill-up compared to six months ago,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “On the previously hard-hit West Coast, average prices have fallen nearly $2 per gallon since October. Fifteen states now have average gasoline prices of $2.99 or less, with several more to join this week. We remain on schedule to see the national average gas price fall below $3 by Christmas, with diesel set to fall 50 cents to $1 per gallon over the next six weeks or so. While the Keystone Pipeline shutdown has been getting some attention, motorists need not worry much about the oil-carrying pipeline for now. There is no expected impact to gasoline prices as of now.”

OIL PRICESUnder the weight of economic concerns, a possible surge in Covid cases as China works towards re-opening, and a changed psyche that OPEC+ is over-producing, oil prices fell last week to their lowest in nearly a year. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was last up 83 cents to $71.85 per barrel, over $10 lower than last Monday’s $81.99 per barrel start. Brent crude oil was also struggling to find traction, up 22 cents in early Monday trade to $76.32 per barrel, but still a $11 per barrel drop from last Monday. Oil has struggled mightily to hold its rally even on some potentially bullish news, each time falling back down as fundamentals look sluggish.

According to Baker Hughes, last week’s U.S. rig count was down 4 to 780 and was 204 rigs higher than a year ago. The Canadian rig count was up 7 rigs to 202 and was 25 rigs higher than a year ago.

OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTSLast week’s report from the Energy Information Administration showed a fairly large 5.2 million barrel decline in crude oil inventories, to a level 9% below a year ago. The SPR fell 2.1 million barrels and stands 35.6% below a year ago, while inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma fell 400,000 barrels. Domestic crude oil production was essentially unchanged as Alaska production rose 6,000 barrels to push total domestic production to 12.2 million barrels due to rounding. Gasoline inventories surged 5.3 million barrels and are on par with a year ago, while distillate inventories surged 6.2 million barrels and closed the year on year gap to 7.8 million barrels. Distillate inventories stand 9% below the five year average, closing a significant gap in recent weeks as refiners crank out supplies, with utilization again an unseasonably high 95.5%. Implied gasoline demand, a proxy for retail demand, rose 41,000 barrels per day to 8.36 million. Excluding the SPR, total supply is down just 0.7% from last year, while including the SPR, supplies are down 12.2% from last year.

FUEL DEMANDAccording to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy card, U.S. retail gasoline demand fell last week (Sun-Sat) by 2.0%, after bouncing back the week prior. Broken down by PADD region, demand fell 0.5% in PADD 1, fell 2.2% in PADD 2, fell 6.0% in PADD 3, rose 0.3% in PADD 4, and fell 0.8% in PADD 5.

GAS PRICE TRENDSThe most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $2.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $3.09, $2.89, $2.79 and $3.19 rounding out the top five most common prices.The median U.S. gas price is $3.09 per gallon, down 16 cents from last week and about 12 cents lower than the national average.The top 10% of stations in the country average $4.35 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $2.53 per gallon.The states with the lowest average prices: Texas ($2.66), Oklahoma ($2.67), and Arkansas ($2.76).The states with the highest average prices: Hawaii ($5.02), California ($4.45), and Nevada ($4.22).

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