Susquehanna area motorists will be saving a bit more at the pump this week, while gas prices drop almost 2 cents to $3.453 a gallon.
Nationally
Today's national average price for regular unleaded gasoline is $3.63 per gallon. This is a penny more expensive than one week ago, six cents more than one month ago and nine cents more than the same date last year.
The national average has increased just one cent in the past week; however this obscures divergent gas price storylines at the state level. Drivers in 25 states have seen prices fall during this period. At the same time, drivers in 25 states and Washington D.C. have seen prices increase over the past week. This group is led by sharply higher prices in several Great Lakes states, including jumps of at least 8 cents per gallon in Ohio (+9 cents), Wisc. (+11 cents), Mich. (+12 cents), Ill. (+16 cents) and Ind. (+19 cents).
The near record high prices being paid by drivers in these states are the product of continued low supplies and transportation challenges for wholesale gasoline in the Chicago market, particularly because of maintenance at the ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet, Ill. and the BP refinery in Whiting, Ind. Confirmation yesterday that the Joliet refinery was back online after more than two months will increase supply to the market and likely mean lower prices in the days ahead, however the Whiting refinery continues to operate at less than full capacity.
As noted in last week's Fuel Gauge Report, national gasoline markets have been driven by regional supply and production issues and not by West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices, which have traded within a narrow $5 range. At the close of today's formal trading on the NYMEX, WTI settled down 26 cents at $95.77 per barrel.
(AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 82 local offices in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York and Kentucky servicing 2.7 million members.)