Posted on 05/17/2022 12:46:31 PM PDT by blam
Gas prices at the pump hit $4 a gallon in every state for the first time Monday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). This is mainly due to languishing refinery capacity across the US, dwindling fuel stockpiles, and robust demand for gas ahead of the summer driving season.
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Georgia — the last three holdouts — saw prices for regular gas surpass the $4 a gallon mark last night. The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.523, another record high. The increase comes as the cost of crude oil now tops $114 a barrel.
In a note to clients on Monday, Goldman Sachs’ commodity analyst Neil Mehta outlined that rising fuel prices were due to a rash of refinery retirements, reduced Russian energy exports, recovering jet fuel demand, and tight global inventories for products, particularly diesel, have supported higher prices at the pump.
Mehta indicated that US fuel product inventories are 10% below a five-year average and refining utilization rates are below normal.
US refining utilization struggles to increase as the driving season nears.
This means tight supplies and rising demand will only push pump prices higher. Wholesale gasoline prices signal that $5 a gallon on a national level is imminent.
Despite record-high gasoline prices, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, said weekly gasoline demand increased by 3% in the past week and was up 1.8% compared to the four-week average.
“Americans clearly aren’t being too discouraged by high gas prices,” De Haan tweeted on Sunday.
Demand destruction has yet to materialize as demand remains above a 20-year average. People still have to drive to work…
Meanwhile, President Biden’s cunning SPR release fails to lower crude prices. SPR levels are dangerously low, at levels not seen since 1987.
All indications point to higher fuel prices at the pump this summer. The most important question is when does demand destruction emerge. So far, not yet.
87 octane has now crossed the $5 threshold in Alaska.
Yep...$3.99 here in NE OK
I went all last winter with no NG heat....just to see if I could do it. I did it....so it’s doable.
Shanghai is reopening. I don’t know how many are commuters, but with a population of over 25 million, they will put an increased demand on worldwide fuel supplies.
Different areas will have different problems with supply/demand.
Yes I see bare shelves, etc. but I’ve been able to get things I need
with out too much trouble. I basically use a Walmart and a local
chain for my major shopping needs. Take care.
BTW, where's the media outrage with this level of inflation? If it were Trump they'd be calling for people to crucify him with this economic sh#tshow and all the malaise they'd be spewing about it.
The prices on everything/lack of baby formula are, are, are....
KILLING "THE CHILDREN!" and "THE ELDERLY!"...
...Oh...they're all demonrats...
Never mind.
(Jimmy Carter, Part Deux)
...deep state 'bout to get REAL dirty...on the pee-pole.
Carterville will seem like Pleasantville after they're done.
He used to go through most of the winter on wood alone.
Not so much any more...
Progress. If folks wont go electric, we will force them.
Why?
$6.60 here in Nevada County, California
$4.50 today. Headed to the box store to pick up a pitchfork and some tar and feathers.
I imagine he's going to screw it down this winter and do the all wood heat thing again when natgas spikes.
was in Philly today it is 5.00 there for regular.
Headline should be longer, to say at the end “...liberals all say, ‘no biggie’.”
We dream of $4 a gallon gas up here in Canada. It’s over $2 a litre up here. You have to do two conversions to get the equivalent but at two bucks a litre it’s about $5.75 US up here.
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