Rising Oil Prices Cause Surge at the Pump, Setting New Records
A filling station in New York on Tuesday
The price for a gallon (3.79 liters) of gasoline in the United State as of Tuesday is $4.37, up almost $0.15 over the past week, and has climbed 47% from a year ago.
Tuesday’s figure eclipses the all-time high set on March 11, when the cost per gallon was $4.33, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
While this appears to be more than the $4.14 peak in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, that figure would have been $5.24 in today’s dollars.
After weeks of relatively small declines, prices began to shoot up as Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine rocked oil markets. Plans for the European Union to end its use of Russian oil put additional pressure on oil prices as it will further shrink the global supply of oil.
The cost of diesel fuel as well as premium gasoline has risen in lockstep with unleaded regular. A gallon of diesel cost $5.62 on Tuesday, while the same quantity of premium averaged $5.07, the EIA said.
The price for one gallon of premium gasoline, which was at $4.49 at a Shell station in Whitestone, New York, at the end of March was $4.99 on Tuesday. The price per gallon was just $3.65 at the end of 2021 at the same filling station. A gallon of regular gas cost $4.55 at the same service station, also on Tuesday.
Prices are not expected to trend downward in the near future, analysts believe.
“There’s little, if any, good news about fuel prices heading into summer,” said Patrick De Haan, who heads of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, in a statement.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
