The price of gasoline on Monday morning is down just over a penny compared with last week’s national average pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline. That’s the second consecutive weekly decline; but compared with the same day last year, prices are 46.3 cents a gallon higher.
Average gasoline pump prices fell in 42 of the 50 states last week, compared with 36 states where prices had fallen in the prior week, according to analysts at GasBuddy.
Prices fell the most in Ohio (down 12.9 cents), Michigan (down 11.6 cents), Illinois (down 8.1 cents), Indiana (down 8.0 cents) and Kentucky (down 6.3 cents). Gas prices rose the most in Hawaii (up 5.2 cents), Missouri (up 1.9 cents), Utah (up 1.8 cents), Montana (up 1.2 cents) and Louisiana (up 0.7 cents).
Even though crude prices have been marching higher, demand for gasoline has slipped and commercial inventories are up by 19.3 million barrels, according to GasBuddy. Lower prices are soon going to have even more incentive to decline as refiners switch from winter blends to summer-grade fuel.
Monday’s most common price for a gallon of regular gas in the United States is $2.249, $0.51 a gallon higher than last year and flat compared to a month ago.
There are no U.S. gas stations charging more than $4.00 a gallon for gas (yet) and just 0.1% charging between $3.50 and $4.00 a gallon. No gas station is charging less than $1.75 a gallon, and more than about 94% are charging more than $2.00 a gallon.
The five states where average gasoline prices were cheapest were South Carolina ($2.056), Oklahoma ($2.087), Indiana ($2.101), Tennessee ($2.104) and Alabama ($2.105).
The five states posting the highest averages were Hawaii ($3.061), California ($2.799), Washington ($2.737), Alaska ($2.694) and Pennsylvania ($2.602).
Crude oil prices are down about 1% Monday morning, with West Texas Intermediate crude oil for March delivery trading at $52.74, after closing at $53.22 last Friday. The price reached an intra-day high of $53.47 earlier this morning.
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