Relief at the pump
The busy summer driving season is coming to an end, and fuel prices are finally on the decline after several weeks of small increases to the relief of motorists.
The busy summer driving season is coming to an end, and fuel prices are finally on the decline after several weeks of small increases.
Summertime typically brings the most expensive fuel because of high demand and the greater cost of churning out summer-grade gasoline that doesn’t evaporate in the heat. Fuel prices rose since the beginning of July and peaked about a week ago.
Gasoline costs dipped roughly 2 cents per gallon in Houston and nationwide in the last week, falling to an average of $2.11 in the Houston area and to $2.32 nationally for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel,
according to data from GasBuddy, which tracks fuel pricing and refining activity.
That puts Houston 1 cent below where it started 2017, demonstrating a year of remarkable consistency for fuel prices that fluctuated much more wildly in the past few years as oil prices crashed to a low of nearly $26 in early 2016 from more than $100 a barrel in 2014.
With oil and gasoline prices inextricably linked, the U.S. benchmark for crude oil settled Monday at $47.37 a gallon, down $1.14 on the day.
“The good news is that the bulk of the motoring public is seeing gas prices drift lower as oil prices have slipped,” GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan said. “That trend may continue in the week ahead as oil prices have remained under pressure as the season’s close comes into view along with lower gasoline demand and cheaper winter gasoline.”
Some of the areas with some of the biggest regional spikes in fuel prices were those more rural areas where the solar eclipse was most visible, causing fuel shortages and price hikes as motorists scrambled for the best views.
Locally, some refinery issues failed to have a major effect on fuel prices, at least so far. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s massive Baytown refinery suffered some temporary outages during maintenance work, while a small fire at Royal Dutch Shell’s Deer Park refinery created some downtime.
The summer driving season typically concludes after the Labor Day holiday weekend.