Retail gasoline prices in the United States are continuing to rise, and are up 4.6 cents from a week ago, according to GasBuddy data.
The national average is still down 1 cent from a month ago, but nearly 20 cents higher from this point last year. The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $3.83 per gallon as of Sunday, GasBuddy data shows.
The reason behind the rise is refinery outages in the western United States, but relief may soon be coming for some.
“With the transition back to cheaper winter gasoline now upon us in nearly every state, we should see prices eventually cooling back off. But if refinery issues continue to develop or linger, especially now that we’re entering maintenance season with less available capacity online, the expected decline could certainly be offset. In addition, with oil prices now above $91 for the first time in nearly a year, there remains some offset from the rising price of oil thanks to Saudi Arabia and Russia’s war on low oil prices, now in its third month,” Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy said in a blog post on Monday.
According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of gasoline across the United States is $3.881 per gallon, compared to $3.832 per gallon a week ago and $3.678 per gallon a year ago.
Crude oil prices are also rising, with WTI crude oil rising to $91.65 per barrel on Monday—a nearly 1% increase on the day. The Brent benchmark is exchanging hands at $94.47 per barrel, up 0.57% on the day.
According to De Haan, Americans today are spending $68 million more on gasoline than they did a year ago. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration said it wants to make sure that gasoline prices are affordable and that it is monitoring oil prices and production very closely.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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