Press release from AAA:
Today’s national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.86, up 9 cents from last week. One year ago, the price was $2.27. The New York State average is $2.90 – up 7 cents from last week. A year ago, the NYS average was $2.50.
AAA Western and Central New York (AAA WCNY) reports the following averages:
- Batavia -- $2.84 (up 8 cents since last week)
- Buffalo -- $2.82 (up 5 cents since last week)
- Ithaca -- $2.87 (up 7 cents since last week)
- Rochester -- $2.87 (up 6 cents since last week)
- Rome -- $2.92 (up 6 cents since last week)
- Syracuse -- $2.85 (up 5 cents since last week)
- Watertown -- $2.92 (up 6 cents since last week)
Rising crude prices, tightening gas supplies, and increased gas demand continue to drive pump prices to higher ground. According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), total domestic gas stocks are down while demand is up. Last week’s demand measurement is the highest since the end of November 2020. If these trends continue alongside higher crude prices, drivers can expect pump prices to increase.
From GasBuddy:
"As Americans turn optimistic on COVID-19 pandemic recovery, we've been seeing insatiable demand for gasoline, which continues to recover far faster than oil production," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. "According to GasBuddy data, last week's gasoline demand was just 1 percent below the pre-pandemic level, an extremely bullish factor likely to continue driving gas and oil prices up in the short term.
"The recovery in the last few weeks has been astounding -- both the speed and overall volume increases we've seen in our data lend credibility to the recovery, and perhaps will lead to continued price increases due to the continued imbalance between supply and demand.
"It's no longer a question of if we'll see gasoline demand return to near normal this year but when, and will oil producers rise to the occasion and be able to quickly ramp up output, or are we going to see the highest summer prices since 2014 until they jump into action? Only time will tell, but it's looking like things are heating up far more than expected since the start of the year."
