While the average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gas last week jumped eight cents to $2.224 as of Monday morning, folks living in Nebraska’s Dakota and Dixon counties saw pump prices soar by 30 cents a gallon. The second and third largest price increases hit drivers in Orlando and Tampa, Fla., where prices jumped 21 and 19 cents, respectively. That’s the highest pump price of 2016.
The national average price is the highest so far in 2016 as prices rose in all 50 states over the past week. Gasoline prices in the top 50 metropolitan areas rose at least 13 cents a gallon last week, according to a report released Monday by GasBuddy.
Week over week, prices increased the most in Florida (13.8 cents) with prices rising 13.3 cents in Michigan, 12.8 cents in Ohio, 11.2 cents in Alaska and 11.0 cents in Oregon. The five states posting the smallest increases were Hawaii (0.1 cent), Arizona (1.0 cent), Kansas (2.4 cents), Nevada (2.6 cents) and California (up 3.0 cents).
Crude oil prices have risen by more than 50% since their low point around $30 a barrel in mid-February, and that price hike did not take long to show up in pump prices. Analysts at GasBuddy noted that global production is falling, especially in the United States, where production is down 7% year over year.
Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, said:
While oil inventories in the U.S. remain well-supplied for now, they are likely to start receding as refiners begin throttling up their operations after maintenance season. Americans appear ripe to consume near record levels of gasoline, if not the highest levels ever this summer with some of the lowest summer prices seen in ten years or so.
Only seven states reported gas prices below $2 a gallon this week, down from 13 states in the prior week. Oklahoma has the cheapest gas at $1.943 a gallon, and California has the most expensive at $2.801 per gallon.
The metro area with the most expensive gas is San Francisco, where a gallon of regular costs $2.937. Of the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest prices, 17 are in California.
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