Average Weekly Gas Prices Drops First Time Since November

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 3:50PM EST · Published Jan 16, 12:30PM EST

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Average Weekly Gas Prices Drops First Time Since November — © Thinkstock

Over the period which started eight weeks ago, the price of a gallon of regular gas has marched higher each week. Last week broke the trend

According to the AAA

For the first time since November the national average has seen a weekly drop, falling 3.2 cents to $2.339 per gallon, according to GasBuddy. The fall comes as crude oil prices take a breather and gasoline inventories surge, putting downward pressure on pump prices.

A total of 36 states saw gasoline prices fall in the last week, led by Great Lakes states: Indiana fell 13.9 cents, Ohio fell 13.1, Michigan tumbled 10.9 cents, Kentucky fell 8.7 cents and Illinois dropped by 6.2 cents, thanks to some relief from refinery issues in the last few weeks.

The downward trend is evident in over two-thirds of states but may take additional time to materialize in others, yet is a familiar pattern for late winter as refiners build inventories prior to the late-February start of refinery maintenance season and thanks to the year’s weakest demand occurring over the next four weeks.

Not all states benefited:

Meanwhile, Rocky Mountain states saw the largest increases in the country with Utah up 5.8 cents for its first major rise since OPEC’s production cuts announced in November, while Idaho advanced 4.1 cents and Montana rose 3.4 cents, rounding out the top three in the country.

The state and city data from AAA:

To begin the week, the nation’s lowest gasoline prices can be found in South Carolina and Oklahoma, where prices average $2.11/gallon. Aiken, SC was the nation’s cheapest metro area, with gas prices averaging $2.045/gallon, followed by Rock Hill, SC at $2.051 and Sumter, SC at $2.063. Lubbock, TX followed, coming in at $2.066, while Cleveland, TN rounded out the top five at $2.068/gallon. On the other side of the list, Hawaii was home to the nation’s priciest gallon of gasoline at an average $3.05, followed by California ($2.81) and Washington ($2.74). Kahului, HI was the only city over $3 per gallon average, seeing an average gallon priced at a whopping $3.44 per gallon, followed by San Luis Obispo, CA at $2.955 and San Francisco, CA at $2.95. Honolulu ($2.942) and Fairbanks, AK ($2.921) rounded out the top five.

One lesson from this is that it is good to buy gas near the Gulf of Mexico and refineries south of Houston

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.