Tightening supply combined with strong gasoline demand contributed to national gas prices moving higher over the past week.
Year-over-year discounts persist due to crude oil prices remaining relatively low, but discounts are beginning to narrow and have closed to 41 cents per gallon versus this same date last year. Today’s average price of $2.38 per gallon represents an increase of two cents per gallon since last week and 18 cents per gallon more than one month ago.
Across Virginia, prices have remained stable, some even dropping a penny in the last week.
“The increase in regional gas prices seems to have slowed with many areas unchanged or within a penny of prices last week,” said Martha Meade, Manager of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Even though the Mid-Atlantic region is now above the $2 per gallon mark, drivers are still seeing prices 30 to 40 cents less than this time last year. With most of the summer vacation season still ahead, gasoline consumption could reach a new record over the summer.”
At the close of Friday’s formal trading session on the NYMEX, WTI closed up 45 cents to settle at $49.07 per barrel. Supply outages in Nigeria and Canada have kept oil prices on an upward trend. This week West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil settled above the $50 per barrel mark on Tuesday for the first time in 2016, and closed on Wednesday at an 11-month high of $51.23 per barrel. By Thursday, the commodity closed slightly lower at $50.56 per barrel. On Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the global oil market is experiencing the largest amount of unplanned global supply disruptions since 2011.
Gasoline demand remains on target to reach unprecedented highs during this year’s summer driving season. The EIA’s weekly report showed that 200,000 more barrels of gasoline per day were supplied compared to the previous week. As drivers start taking summer road trips at a record-setting pace, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released a report citing U.S. driving reached 746 billion miles in the first three months of 2016, beating the previous record set last year.
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Chris Graham
