CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The national average price for a gallon of gasoline fell for the 11th consecutive week, and in Laramie County that drop totaled about 11 cents for an average of $3.70 per gallon.
GasBuddy, a national price tracker, reported a 5-cent drop in the national average to $3.81 per gallon on Monday. The data is compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports from over 150,000 stations nationwide. The national average on Monday was down 39.8 cents from a month ago but up 69.1 cents from over a year ago.
“Gas prices are now $1.20 per gallon lower than mid-June with Americans spending $450 million less on gasoline every day as a result,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
The national average price of diesel rose 7.3 cents in the last week and stands at $5.04 per gallon.
AAA reported the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline at $3.85 per gallon, 5 cents lower than last week, and placed Wyoming’s average higher at $3.97.
In Laramie County, the cheapest fuel on Monday, at $3.55 per gallon, was reported at Sam’s Club, 1948 Dell Range Blvd., and Big D, 2029 Dell Range Blvd. The second-lowest price was listed as $3.65 at Maverik, 1706 S. Greeley Highway.
“Some issues have developed that we’re keeping a close eye on, including the shutdown of the largest refinery in the Midwest,” De Haan said. “While that refinery may get back online sooner rather than later, it’s not impossible that down the road the situation could impact prices in the region. For the rest of the country, however, we’ll continue to see prices moderate. This is of course subject to hurricane season, and it does appear that the tropics are starting to see some activity, so there’s no guarantee the decline will continue.”
Also included in GasBuddy’s report on Monday:
OIL PRICES
In early Monday trade, oil prices were mixed, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil up 19 cents to $93.25 per barrel, up some $6 per barrel from last Monday’s $87.66 per barrel. Brent crude oil was up 2 cents to $101.01 per barrel, up closer to $8 from last Monday’s $93.50 per barrel level. OPEC has openly discussed cutting oil production, blaming the possibility of an economic slowdown for possible cuts, while at the same time, Iran has been close to agreeing to a new nuclear with Western powers, likely drawing the ire of major producer Saudi Arabia.According to Baker Hughes, last week’s U.S. rig count was up by 3 rigs to 765, and was 257 rigs higher than a year ago. The Canadian rig count was unchanged at 201, but was 54 rigs higher than a year ago.
OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTS
According to the Energy Information Administration, crude oil inventories fell 3.3 million barrels last week, to 6% below the five year average for this time of year. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell 8.1 million barrels, and now stands 27% below its year ago level. Gasoline inventories were unchanged over the last week, while distillate inventories fell 700,000 barrels to 24% below the five year average for this time of year. Implied gasoline demand fell 914,000bpd to 8.43 million barrels, while refinery utilization increased 0.3 percentage points. Gasoline production fell to 9.4 million barrels per day, while distillate fuel production rose to 5.2 million barrels per day. Total U.S. petroleum inventories are now down 43.3 million barrels from a year ago, or 3.4% lower. Including the SPR, inventories are down 11.3%.FUEL DEMAND
According to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy card, U.S. retail gasoline demand saw a decline last week (Sun-Sat), falling 1.6%. Broken down by PADD region, demand fell 1.5% in PADD 1, fell 0.8% in PADD 2, fell 4.1% in PADD 3, fell 4.0% in PADD 4 and fell 0.3% in PADD 5.GAS PRICE TRENDS
The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.59 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $3.49, $3.69, $3.39 and $3.79 rounding out the top five most common prices.
The median U.S. gas price is $3.65 per gallon, down 12 cents from last week and about 16 cents lower than the national average.
The top 10% of stations in the country average $5.14 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.17 per gallon.
The states with the lowest average prices: Arkansas ($3.32), Mississippi ($3.34) and Texas ($3.34).
The states with the highest average prices: Hawaii ($5.26), California ($5.22) and Nevada ($4.85). GasBuddy
