Fill ’er up soon: Gas prices going up, analysts say
July 4 travelers will pay $2.90 per gallon
Better fill ’er up ASAP to avoid the coming gas price rise.
Sharply rising crude oil prices over the past week will fuel a jump in gasoline prices in the days leading up to the July 4 holiday, travel club AAA said in a midweek bulletin.
“It looks like the fun is over for motorists who have enjoyed a monthlong streak of declining gas prices,” AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said in a statement.
The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $73.34 a barrel on Thursday — its highest level in 3.5 years, and more than $8 above last week’s low.
Normally such a sharp crude price increase would spur a 20-cent-per-gallon spike in the price of a gallon of gas, AAA said. “However, strong production of summer gasoline should help prevent that big of a spike,” Jenkins said. “For now, motorists should expect an increase of 5 to 10 cents before the holiday.”
GasBuddy.com projected that July 4 travelers will pay an average of $2.90 a gallon across the nation — highest for the holiday since 2014.
AAA’s bulletin blamed the spike in crude prices on a decline in U.S. oil inventories over the past week; a U.S.-driven push for allies to end imports of Iranian oil by Nov. 4 as part of President Donald Trump’s decision to end the 2015 nuclear deal; production challenges in Canada; low crude output from Venezuela and Libya; and a decision by Russia and OPEC countries to increase production at lower rates than expected.
About the only good news in the AAA report is that the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular in Florida was $2.68 on Thursday — 17 cents less than the national average of $2.85.
In South Florida, where the higher cost of doing business keeps gas prices higher than the state average, the per-gallon average was $2.74 in Broward County, and $2.82 in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
But within the region, prices varied widely, according to GasBuddy.com, which relies on “spotters” to report prices. The region’s lowest prices were east and west of Florida’s Turnpike in Davie and Hollywood, where a competitionfueled gas price war prompted a half-dozen stations to offer gas
below said.
A few miles east along Sheridan Street in Hollywood, prices ranged from $2.79 at a Mobil station west $2.50, GasBuddy of North Park Road to $2.92 at Exxon at North Federal Highway.
Numerous stations throughout Broward were still selling gas between $2.50 and $2.60 on Thursday, according to GasBuddy.
In Palm Beach County, gas was still plentiful in the $2.50s in the West Palm Beach and Lake Worth areas, but the run-up appears to be underway in Miami-Dade, where $2.63 was the lowest price reported by GasBuddy. It’s at a Tom Thumb station at 77 S. Okeechobee Road in Hialeah.