Thanksgiving Travel Underway With Gasoline Demand Jumping 7.6%

Thanksgiving travel is underway with millions of Americans hitting the road and U.S. gasoline demand jumping on Monday by 7.6% compared to last week’s Monday, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said on Tuesday.

Gasoline demand in America was 6.4% higher on November 20, the start of the Thanksgiving week, compared with the average of the last four Mondays.

Last year, the 2022 run-up to Thanksgiving saw Monday gasoline demand rising by 1.8% week-on-week and up by 3.4% from the average of the previous four Mondays, De Haan noted.

In the week before the 2023 Thanksgiving holiday week, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. fell for a ninth consecutive week, by 6.2 cents from a week ago to $3.27 per gallon on Sunday, marking the longest streak of declines in over a year, De Haan wrote in a blog post on Monday.

The national average has now fallen by 25.9 cents from a month ago and 36.9 cents per gallon from a year ago.

“As millions of Americans gear up to hit the road for Thanksgiving, the national average is seeing its longest streak of declines in over a year, reaching a ninth straight week as gas prices fall to their lowest since January,” De Haan said.

“GasBuddy now counts over 65,000 stations with a price of $2.99 per gallon or lower, while 11 states are seeing average prices below $3.”

GasBuddy expects that five more states could see below-$3 average gasoline prices before Thanksgiving.

Wisconsin became the 13th state with average gasoline prices of $2.99 or lower, with Florida and North Carolina expected to join next, per GasBuddy data. 

“We expect the national average to drop to $3.25 by Thanksgiving,” De Haan said on Tuesday.

“The fall in gas prices, largely seasonal due to weakening gasoline demand, could extend for another week or two, leading to potentially the lowest gas prices since 2021 by Christmas,” De Haan said on Monday.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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