Motorists saw gasoline prices on a downward trend for several months, but for the past few days the price has increased slightly.
According to AAA Hoosier Motor Club, prices for unleaded gasoline declined a record 123 consecutive days to $2.03 a gallon. The price increased last week for the first time since Sept. 25 of last year.
The lower price of unleaded gasoline has relieved a pinch from consumer pocketbooks, but some retailers have dropped the price too low for a profit margin. GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan said that has caused prices to spike.
“What you’re seeing with the big spike is essentially gas stations losing 20 or 25 cents a gallon and raising their price back up to where they’re making about 15 or 20 cents a gallon. Obviously, you have a 40 cent a gallon difference between a station losing 20 cents and making 20 cents and that’s where these big spikes come from. The good news is that prices are already coming back down,” said DeHaan.
The number of Americans estimated to hit the road this holiday travel season is the highest that AAA has ever recorded. The end of the year holiday period runs from Dec. 23 through Jan. 4. Triple A predicts 98.6 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more during the year-end holiday season, showing a 4 percent increase from the number of travelers in 2013. Continue reading
The price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline has been dropping.
Don Good from the Good Oil Company in Winamac says the prices will continue to drop.
“For the foreseeable near future, the trend is to continue down,” said Good. “We’re probably going to bottom out not too far from here. There are a lot of places that are starting to get under three dollars. That’s kind of under cost for some of them, but they’re trying to beat that three dollar mark. For the long term, we should be under three dollars and unless there’s a world event that changes that we’ll probably stay in that range for a while.”
Fuel prices across the state of Indiana took a large scale hike at the end of last week. The state average price ended up around $3.59 a gallon prompted by a gain in wholesale prices that caused a double digit per gallon increase. GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says spikes in prices can be predicted ahead of time.
“What we see across Indiana is that prices generally spike like they did last week, every one to two weeks, so it’s quite predictable that these spikes happen,” said DeHaan.
Gas prices spiked this week but according to Don Good from the Good Oil Company, we should be seeing lower prices for a gallon of gasoline soon.
Good said the recent spike has to do with the continuation of the fuel turnaround.
“Every time this time of the year rolls around they deplete the tanks to meet the new standards and that always creates – I’ll call it a ‘pricey opportunity’ for the speculators to buy product and then sell it at an increased cost so we always have some upward pressure this time when they go into turnaround, commented Good.”
The national average price has fallen for 29 days in a row, the longest consecutive decline since April of 2012.
Gas prices in September averaged $3.52 per gallon, which was the lowest national average for the month since 2010 and 31 cents per gallon cheaper than the monthly average a year ago. The AAA Hoosier Motor Club released that refineries have been running smoothly with few problems. Continue reading
The average price of gas in Indiana is once again on the rise, having been increasing since Aug. 28, and is now up to $3.70 per gallon – 10 cents more than the national average, which has remained relatively steady. The national average is currently resting around $3.60, down 5 cents since a month ago. According to Gregg Laskoski of GasBuddy.com, this regional increase can be attributed by rising crude oil prices and, despite common belief, it’s very unlikely that the gas increases in our area are caused by the Labor Day weekend or unrest in the Middle East.
Unrest in Egypt is to blame for rising gas prices, according to GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan, who says the market is nervous violent protests could spread to other parts of the Middle East. He cites Energy Information Administration data that indicates crude oil inventories have dropped by six percent or 20 million barrels in the last two weeks. DeHaan adds higher crude oil prices in July are being passed on to consumers at the pumps. He says many retailers in Indiana have raised regular unleaded to $3.75 a gallon and adds prices may continue to climb next week.
The retail price of gasoline throughout the state of Indiana continues to decline at a rapid pace, having dropped from an average of $4.20 on June 6 to $3.57 on June 25, but how long can we expect these prices to continue to fall? According to Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, prices should continue to drop for a few weeks, but he said with hurricane season approaching, weather could become a problem.
Finally, some relief is to be had at the pumps as drivers gas up. The average price in Indiana has fallen from $4.20 on June 6 to $4.08 on Wednesday, a breath of fresh air despite the fact that the state’s average remains 45 cents higher than the national average. Fortunately, according to GasBuddy.com’s Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan, those prices will keep falling.
“Exxon Mobile’s facility in Joliet, Ill., has come back online and that’s meant a lot of downward pressure on wholesale prices, which will then, in turn, mean a big drop at the pump here in the next week,” said DeHaan.
A lot of changes can happen in a span of eight years. The internet, clothes, hair, social media, the economy and gas prices.
In 2005, WKVI aired a story that dealt with how to get the most out of your car as the price of gas was up to $1.70 a gallon. Fast forward eight years and we’re talking about how to get the most out of your car as the price of gas is over $4.00 a gallon.
Motorists are still gritting their teeth as they head to the pumps, dealing with a spike in gasoline prices that has brought the Indiana average up to $3.98 per gallon – 35 cents higher than the national average of $3.63. Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, said a refinery glitch that resulted in lower production is likely to blame.
DeHaan explained that the glitch caused the affected refinery in the Great Lakes region to slow its production and forced it to purchase gasoline on the market to cover its contractual obligations.
Gas prices spiked nearly 20 cents over the course of Friday night, leading many motorists shocked and confused at the now-average price of $3.97 around Indiana. What led to this unexpected increase? According to GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan, a simple refinery glitch could be the culprit.
