Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring, but he didn’t mention anything about gas prices. Consumer costs at the pump tend to heat up along with the weather, but prices have been increasing for about a month already.
“With Valentine’s Day now behind us, we have officially entered the time of year when gas prices traditionally start their spring fling, but we’ve already seen the streak of consecutive increases in the national average hit four weeks,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “While the early start could also mean an early end, we still have as many as eight weeks that gas prices typically increase, and anything can happen between now and then.”
Overall in Pennsylvania, the average was 9.9 cents higher this week at $3.55 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 5,269 stations in Pennsylvania.
In Western Pennsylvania, AAA East Central reported gas prices were 13 cents higher this week at $3.655 per gallon. In Bradford, the average was $3.657; in Brookville, $3.641; in DuBois, $3.651; in Erie, $3.662; and in Warren, $3.699.
Prices in Pennsylvania are 20.6 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand 12.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has risen 10 cents in the last week and stands at $4.09 per gallon.
According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Pennsylvania was priced at $3.09 per gallon Sunday while the most expensive was $4.49 per gallon, a difference of $1.40 per gallon.
“One of the most critical elements to how much gas prices will climb is how quickly and effectively refiners can finish their pre-summer maintenance, start producing EPA-mandated summer gasoline and build up supply of it before Memorial Day,” De Haan said.
After months of barely budging more than a few cents, the national average for pump prices jumped 12 cents over the past week to $3.27. A significant contributor is a shutdown at the large BP-Whiting refinery in Indiana, which has been offline for more than two weeks due to a power outage. The refinery processes 435,000 barrels of crude per day, and the shutdown has caused prices throughout the Midwest to climb, pushing the national average higher along with it. Monday’s national average is 19 cents more than a month ago, but 14 cents less than a year ago.
According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand decreased from 8.81 to 8.17 million barrels per day last week. Total domestic gasoline stocks declined by 3.7 million barrels to 247.3 million barrels. Lower gas demand would typically push pump prices down, but fluctuating oil prices and tight gas supply is causing price increases.
At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate decreased by $1.23 to settle at $76.64. Oil prices dropped after the EIA reported that total domestic commercial crude stocks increased significantly by 12 million barrels to 439.4 million barrels last week.
