After weeks of slowly marching lower, the national average for a gallon of gas reversed course, rising two cents since last week to $3.04. Meanwhile, today’s national average per kilowatt hour of electricity at a public EV charging station remained at 34 cents, according to a report from the American Automobile Association (AAA).
“We could be heading into a period of relative stability when it comes to pump prices,” said Andrew Gross, AAA spokesperson. “Despite some reports to the contrary, the national average never fell below $3 this year, and it might not as a record 119 million people are forecast to travel this holiday season. And 107 million will go by car, which is a lot of fueling up.”
According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gasoline demand rose slightly from 8.81 million b/d last week to 8.92. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks rose from 219.7 million barrels to 222, while gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.9 million barrels daily.
The EIA has also tallied the impact of this year’s hurricane season and reports that unplanned outages of crude oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico due to storms averaged 295,000 barrels per day in September and 110,000 in November, accounting for 16% and 5%, respectively, of total crude oil production from federal Gulf of Mexico waters in those months. However, the impact at the pump was relatively muted as prices popped by a few pennies before resuming their seasonal decline.
Today’s national average for a gallon of gas is $3.04, two cents less than a month ago and four cents less than a year ago.
Oil Market Dynamics
At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, WTI rose 50 cents to settle at $70.58 a barrel. The EIA reports that crude oil inventories decreased by a mere 0.9 million barrels from the previous week. At 421.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Quick Gas and Electricity Stats
Gas
The nation’s top 10 most expensive gasoline markets are Hawaii ($4.54), California ($4.31), Washington ($3.91), Nevada ($3.58), Oregon ($3.46), Alaska ($3.36), Illinois ($3.243), Pennslyvania ($3.22), Washington, DC ($3.22), and New York ($3.14).
The nation’s top 10 least expensive gasoline markets are Oklahoma ($2.58), Mississippi ($2.60), Arkansas ($2.65), Texas ($2.66), Kansas ($2.68), Louisiana ($2.71), Tennessee ($2.72), Missouri ($2.74), Alabama ($2.75) and South Carolina ($2.77).
Electric
The nation’s top 10 least expensive states for public charging per kilowatt hour are Kansas (22 cents), Missouri (24 cents), Nebraska (24 cents), Delaware (27 cents), Texas (27 cents), Washington, DC (29 cents), Maryland (29 cents), Utah (29 cents) North Dakota (29 cents), and Michigan (29 cents).
The nation’s top 10 most expensive states for public charging per kilowatt hour are Hawaii (56 cents), Montana (45 cents), West Virginia (44 cents), New Hampshire (42 cents), Arkansas (42 cents), Idaho (42 cents), Kentucky (41 cents), South Carolina (41 cents), Louisiana (41 cents), and Alaska (41 cents).
Drivers can find current gas and electric charging prices along their route using the AAA TripTik Travel planner.
