With Harvey, Irma gone, gas prices starting to fall
Good news for motorists: The post-storm surge in gasoline prices is ebbing.
Palm Beach County’s average gasoline price dropped to $2.75 on Monday, which is down 4 cents from a week ago, and more declines are expected as supplies return to normal following Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Florida’s average fell 5 cents, to $2.66 from $2.71 a week ago.
The county’s average for a gallon of regular fuel is still 37 cents above where it stood a month ago, when it was $2.38, according Check for updates on consumer news at to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report. That is unseasonably high for this time of year, when prices normally decline with the summer driving season ended and refineries switching to cheaper winter blends.
Florida’s average remains 36 cents above what it was a month ago — $2.30.
Prices reached a three-year high
earlier this month because of Harvey and Irma, AAA said. Prices surged when Harvey struck refineries along the nation’s Gulf Coast, then remained elevated as demand spiked in the Southeast after Irma. Now supply and demand are returning to normal, and prices are on the decline.
Before and after Irma, Floridians were more concerned with finding gasoline than they were about the price. Many stations ran out of fuel as motorists filled up to evacuate, top off their tanks, or fill gas cans for generators. Normalcy returned a few days after Irma, but prices remain high.
“If it weren’t for the recent hurricanes, gas prices would be about 25 cents lower,” said AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins. “Since gas prices decline much slower than they rise, it could take a few weeks before they reach equilibrium. Gas prices in the southeastern U.S. should drop another 5-10 cents this week.”
The average price in Florida has declined for the past 11 consecutive days for a total of 6 cents, since peaking at $2.73 on Sept. 14. Florida motorists are paying 52 cents more for a gallon of gasoline compared to this time this past year.
“For the second straight week, almost every state saw average gasoline prices fall notably as refineries continue to heal after Harvey and work on restoring production of motor fuels,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.
“While oil prices have gained momentum in the last few weeks, it will not be enough to stymie the continued decline at gas pumps, which will bring the national average down another 5-10 cents in the week ahead,” DeHaan said.
“Impressively, some gas stations in areas of the Great Lakes have dropped their prices by as much as 30-65 cents per gallon in the last two weeks, even as the national average has dropped just half of that, thanks to intense price wars and undercutting,” he said.
Still, he said it will be a while before normal life returns to national gasoline markets.
“But for those motorists in those states — Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky — prices may temporarily bounce back up in the next day or two as stations reset their prices. Nationwide, many motorists have asked why all gas prices haven’t come back down to pre-Harvey levels, and while the answer is complex, in short, it will take weeks or months to see gasoline inventories recover fully, but prices will continue to slowly drift lower as inventories slowly improve,” DeHaan said.