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Upward Gas Price Streak Broken as Oil Sags
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“With oil prices finally sagging over the last week on inflation fears and worries about a surge in COVID-19 cases in Europe impacting oil demand, motorists filling their tanks may soon see a brief respite from rising gas prices,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “While gasoline demand last week rose to its highest level since the pandemic began, concerns that oil demand growth will stall with COVID-19 cases surging in Europe are eroding oil’s recent rise. While gas prices still rose in a majority of states last week, we may see some price decreases in the week or weeks ahead, even as U.S. gasoline demand continues to rally to the highest level since the pandemic started nearly a year ago. It’ll be a bumpy road the next few weeks as markets sort out the bearish and bullish factors, but I still believe prices will likely experience more upward momentum ahead of Memorial Day.”

Oil Prices
The price of oil fell last week under weight of COVID-19 concerns emanating in Europe, where new cases have risen, causing new lockdowns and concerns of oil demand there. Several large cities across Europe have issued new stay at home orders for weeks as cases continue to climb. In early Monday morning trade, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 18 cents to $61.60 per barrel after having shed over $3 from last week’s $65.09 level. Brent crude oil was also up in early trade by a mere 3 cents per barrel to $64.55, also trading at a discount to last week Monday’s $68.79 per barrel.

Oil rig counts in the United States jumped by 9 rigs to 411, still some 361 fewer than a year ago, but the jump is likely a good sign for consumers. Canada’s rig count on the other hand fell by 24 rigs to 96 total rigs, down just 6 from a year ago. Oil rig counts are a lagging indicator, but may show how producers respond to prices.
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Fuel Demand
According to a new dataset being released by GasBuddy, U.S. gasoline demand continued to rise for the week ending March 13, as COVID improvements and warmer weather inspired confidence to get out. National gasoline demand rose 5.67%, while demand rose 4.4% in PADD 1, rose 6.2% in PADD 2, rose 7.0% in PADD 3, fell 6.8% in PADD 4 and rose 8.5% in PADD 5. Weekly gasoline demand last week set yet another new pandemic high, rising to just 1% above the last pre-pandemic figures from mid-March 2020.

Gas Price Trends

• The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists was $2.69 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $2.89, $2.79 and $2.59.
• The average cost at the priciest 10% of stations stands at $3.70 per gallon, up 3 cents from a week ago, while the lowest 10% average $2.48 per gallon, down 1 cent from a week ago.
• The median U.S. price is $2.77 per gallon, unchanged from last week and about 9 cents lower than the national average.
• The states with the lowest average prices: Mississippi ($2.59), Texas ($2.61) and South Carolina ($2.62).
• The states with the highest priced states: California ($3.86), Hawaii ($3.53) and Washington ($3.31).

GasBuddy Media Contact:
Allison Mac
626-383-8371
Director of Marketing
and Communications