Over the past week, retail gas prices have remained stable in the Mid-Atlantic region, moving by a penny or less in most areas.
National gas prices have increased by just a penny to reach today’s average price for regular unleaded gasoline, $2.29 per gallon. Today’s average is a penny more than as one week ago, the same as is was one month ago and 56 cents more than the same date last year.
Prices continue to remain flat due to lower driving demand and an oversupplied market as a result of increased U.S. production.
“Gas prices have certainly been a lot more predictable lately,” said Tammy Arnette, Senior Public Affair Specialist for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Even with OPEC cutting production, supplies are healthy, demand is down and at least until refineries conduct their annual late winter/early spring maintenance operations, it appears we are poised to see pump prices in this same general price range.”
After falling through most of last year, U.S. inventories of gasoline are back at record highs of 259.1 million barrels with refineries making gasoline faster than U.S. drivers can use it.
At the close of Friday’s formal trading session on the NYMEX, WTI was up 54 cents to settle at $53.99 per barrel. Crude oil inventories are up and U.S. oil production rose for the second month in a row, according to recent government data, the first time this has occurred since early 2015. These factors leave retail prices remaining fairly steady and could foil OPEC’s goal of trying to bring supply and demand in the global market back into balance.
As refinery maintenance season begins and driving demand increases, we could expect to see some of the gasoline supply in the U.S. soaked up. According to the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, East Coast gasoline stocks increased by 2.5 million barrels to 76.3 million barrels – a record high for the region. OPIS reports that the increases occurred despite lower imports and lower gasoline production over the past week.
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Chris Graham
