No joke, gas prices actually dipped in Pennsylvania this week.
“For now, motorists have a bit of a reprieve from the constant big weekly price jumps,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “While we seem to be nearing a short-term peak, one word of caution for those in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast: you haven’t yet finished the transition to summer gasoline, so you may experience some sticker shock in a few weeks.”
De Haan advised being prepared for “somewhat of a punch. For the rest of the nation, so long as we don’t see extenuating circumstances, we’re likey close to a top in prices. Let’s hope it pans out and sticks.”
The current Keystone State average of $3.62 per gallon is 3.5 cents lower per gallon than last week. It remains 10.8 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and 5.6 higher than a year ago, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 5,269 stations in Pennsylvania.
In Western Pennsylvania, AAA East Central reported gas prices were 2 cents lower this week at $3.735 per gallon. In Bradford, the average was $3.734; in Brookville, $3.695; in DuBois, $3.736; in Erie, $3.759; and in Warren, $3.796.
According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Pennsylvania was priced at $2.79 per gallon Sunday while the most expensive was $4.49 per gallon, a difference of $1.70 per gallon.
Nationwide, the average price of gasoline was unchanged from last week, at $3.51 per gallon Monday. That’s up 16.1 cents per gallon from a month ago and 0.9 cents per gallon more than a year ago.
“The national average price of gasoline has finally slowed a bit after four weeks of notable increases, stalling in the mid-$3.50s for the last week or two, while the average for diesel fell back below $4 per gallon — not a bad week for motorists as rising demand would normally put solid upward pressure on prices,” De Haan said.
The national average price of diesel declined 2.9 cents in the last week to stand at $3.99 per gallon.
After an early spring surge, the national average for a gallon of gas remained steady over the past week at $3.53. Gas prices are settling into a pattern like last year, AAA representatives said, when the usual seasonal increases were slow and steady. Monday’s national average is 20 cents more than a month ago and three cents more than a year ago.
According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand dipped slightly from 8.81 to 8.72 million barrels per day last week. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks increased by 1.3 million barrels to 232.1 million barrels. Lower demand would typically contribute to pushing pump prices lower or slowing increases, but rising oil prices have kept them elevated instead.
At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate decreased by 27 cents to settle at $81.35. Oil prices fell after the EIA reported that total domestic commercial crude stocks increased by 3.2 million barrels to 448.2 million barrels last week. The current stock level is still 25.5 million barrels lower than at the end of March 2023.
