Philly market increases continue, up nearly 8 cents

The average cost of a gallon of regular in the Philadelphia market continued to rise in the past week, up 7.8 cents per gallon to $3.54 on Monday, according to Gas Buddy.

That’s 19.9 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and 4.2 cents lower than a year ago.

The Philadelphia market was below the national average for a gallon of regular as well, the fifth time in the past six weeks, continuing to buck a long-term trend of being more costlier than the national average.

The national average was up 6.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $3.57 on Monday, according to Gas Buddy.

That’s up 17.1 cents per gallon from a month ago and just less than a penny per gallon from a year ago.

The national average price of diesel was back above four bucks on Monday to $4.02 after a 3.1-cents increase in the past week.

The Philadelphia market’s $3.54 per gallon was the fourth-highest price for an April 8 of the past 11, behind 2022, 2014 and 2023. In all cases but one for the previous decade, the Philadelphia market was above the national average, and that was a tie a year ago.

Neighboring areas are always below the national average by a wide margin.

The price of regular in New Jersey was up 6.8 cents per gallon to $3.31 on Monday, and Wilmington increased 9.2 cents to $3.35 per gallon.

“After a brief break, gas prices have leapt back up, driven by extensive refinery maintenance on the West Coast, where prices have increased notably; only a handful of states have seen prices decline over the last week,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “With oil prices rising to nearly $87 per barrel last week, their highest since October, we are not only facing the seasonal factors that push prices up — refinery maintenance, the switch to summer gasoline, and rising demand — but also escalating crude oil prices as OPEC’s production cuts continue to cause declining global oil inventories.”