The national average for a gallon of gasoline has risen 5 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.76 per gallon Monday (April 23), according to GasBuddy’s latest weekly survey of 135,000 gas stations. The gain comes as oil prices continue to surge, rising last week to a new multi-year high as global demand outpaces supply and OPEC maintains production cuts.
“Gas price increases gripped 49 of the nation’s 50 states again last week as oil prices continued their upward move to new multi-year highs. In addition, government data highlighted a new record for gasoline demand was breached last week, and we’re not even into the summer driving season yet. The road head at the pump looks quite ominous if that demand number proves common in the coming weeks,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.
“With President Trump’s tweet last week targeting the price of oil, there may be additional scrutiny on oil prices in the coming weeks that bears monitoring. OPEC has been remarkably successful in better aligning supply to demand, draining the crude oil glut, and pushing oil prices to their highest since 2014. While refinery maintenance and the change to summer gasoline largely complete, oil prices remain one of the largest active drivers of gas prices now and likely in the weeks ahead. All signs point to some additional upward movement before prices peak and perhaps drop slightly around Memorial Day into the month of June — all certainly very contingent and subject to any changes from OPEC,” he said.
Article excerpted from RVBusiness.com
