Gas prices are holding steady across the U.S., literally unchanged from last week in the GasBuddy national average at $3.50 per gallon today, but Virginia consumers are paying about a nickel per gallon more than they were seven days ago.
Virginia’s average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.35 per gallon, so we’re still well below the national average, but things are evening out a bit.
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, reports that it is hard right now to get a handle on where things are set to go in the near term.
“I don’t see much chance of a major break out of the tight range we’ve held since April,” said De Haan, noting that the x factor could be hurricanes.
“There is rising risk for hurricane season and potential disruptions as major forecaster Colorado State University released its third forecast for 2023 hurricane season, showing a sharp uptick in the number of expected major hurricanes,” De Haan said.
Major weather events like hurricanes can impact prices by impacting supply lines, and the impact can be and often is felt well outside the area where landfall is made.
“Heading into the prime of summer gasoline demand, any disruptions, whether storms or unexpected outages and what might be a small challenge outside of the summer driving season, could be a larger problem, so there is some risk to gas prices going into the second half of summer,” De Haan said.
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Chris Graham
