AAA: Gas prices are stable, but could still spike

Average gasoline prices across the state haven’t climbed significantly yet in advance of Hurricane Harvey, according to auto club AAA Texas.

Still, the club said Friday that pump prices could go up, at least for a short period.

“You often see spikes because of a hurricane,” said Daniel Armbruster, a spokesman for AAA in Texas and New Mexico. “They tend to be brief but dramatic.”

In Austin and San Marcos, the average price for regular unleaded gasoline was $2.10 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA’s surveys, unchanged from Thursday and down 2 cents from a week ago. The price was up a penny a gallon in Houston, to $2.13 from $2.12 on Thursday. But it also was $2.13 a gallon a week ago.

“That doesn’t mean the hurricane won’t impact prices,” Armbruster said. “Once the hurricane makes landfall, we’ll know a little bit more.”

Armbruster noted that refineries near Corpus Christi account for 4.2 percent of total U.S. refinery capacity, while Houston’s refineries make up 14 percent of U.S. capacity.

Increased demand for fuel prior to a hurricane’s landfall can drive up prices, he said, as can decreased supplies afterward when refineries are shut down. But he said both trends tend to be short-lived.

Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service, said he is expecting a spike in retail gasoline prices in coming days, but only for a short time. “We could see a hurricane rally at the pumps this weekend,” Kloza said. “But it will go down again, without a devastating hit to refineries.”

He said wholesale gas prices, which are more volatile than retail prices and react more quickly, have climbed by a range of 7 to 17 cents recently.

Regardless, within a month to six weeks, retail gasoline prices “are going to be a lot lower than what you see in the next seven days,” Kloza predicted, absent a worst-case scenario for the path of Hurricane Harvey.

While AAA’s daily surveys document average gas prices for the various markets, Armbruster said individual stations set their own prices so some charge more. He said people who believe they’ve been the victim of price gouging should save their receipts and contact the Texas attorney general’s office at www. texasattorneygeneral.gov/cpd/price-gouging.