CASPER, Wyo. — The U.S. average gas price jumped 15.7 cents from last week up to $5.01 per gallon today, setting a record, GasBuddy reported.
The tech company compiled more than 11 million individual price reports from more than 150,000 gas stations in the country, according to its Monday report.
The national average is up 57.1 cents from last month and $1.94 from a year ago. Diesel prices rose an average of 13.8 cents last week to $5.77 per gallon.
“For the first time ever, last week saw the national average reaching the $5 per gallon mark as nearly every one of the nation’s 50 states saw prices jump. For now, the upward momentum may slow down, but we are still just one potential jolt to supply away from heading even higher,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Gasoline demand, while rising seasonally, is still well below previous records, but remains impressive with prices in all states at record levels. Should the rise in price finally start to slow demand’s rise, we could see some breathing room, but for now, it seems like Americans are proving resilient to record highs.”
Crude oil prices decreased in early Monday trade following higher inflation, as is traditional, the report said. Oil production has declined in Libya and Nigeria, establishing a floor for oil prices. Iran is shutting down some IAEA monitoring program protocols. Oil inventories rose last week, but SPR is shrinking.
“In early Monday trade, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down $1.86 per barrel to $118.81, down just 10 cents from last Monday’s $118.91 level,” the report said. “Brent crude oil was down $1.59 per barrel to $120.42, less than $1 higher than last week’s $119.84 level.”
U.S. oil inventories rose two million barrels, which is 12% below a year ago, and SPR dropped 7.3 million barrels, landing 17% below a year ago. Domestic oil production was unchanged at 11.9 million barrels per day.
Gas inventories decreased 800,000 barrels, nearly 10% below a year ago. Implied demand jumped by 222,000 barrels per day to 9.20 million barrels per day. Distillate inventories jumped 2.6 million barrels, nearly 21% below their level of last year.
Refinery utilization increased 1.6 percentage points to 94.2%, with 10 million gas barrels produced per day.
U.S. retail gasoline demand rose 2.7% last week, according to data GasBuddy collected via its Pay with GasBuddy card. That was a 2.3% rise in PADD 1, 1.6% in PADD 2, 4.8% in PADD 3, 4.5% in PADD 4 and 4.6% in PADD 5.
The most common U.S. gas price was $4.99 per gallon, up 50 cents from last week. Other leading gas prices were $4.89, $4.69, $4.59 and $4.79. The median U.S. gas price is $4.89 per gallon.
The top 10% of U.S. gas stations average $6.19 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $4.43 per gallon.
Georgia ($4.47), Mississippi ($4.52) and Arkansas ($4.53) have the lowest average gas prices, while California ($6.42), Nevada ($5.65) and Illinois ($5.63) have the highest average gas prices.
As of 7:39 p.m. Monday, GasBuddy reported that the lowest price in the Casper area, $4.35, was seen at Ridley’s and Sam’s Club. Kum & Go’s price at 3 N. Curtis St. was $4.39.
