The nation’s average price of gasoline rose 7.8 cents in the last week to $3.79 per gallon, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The national average price of diesel jumped 14.9 cents in the last week and stands at $4.14 per gallon.

“Average gasoline prices continued to move up last week thanks to a continued rise in oil and continued pressure from hot weather that impacted refineries. However, the pace of increases has started to slow down over the last few days, and for now, appears to have hit a peak over the weekend and is beginning to gently fall,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “The price of diesel, however, continues to rise at a fairly strong pace, with average prices up nearly 15 cents per gallon from a week ago. Diesel will likely continue to see upward momentum while gasoline price increases should become more limited. But, with oil remaining under pressure from Saudi Arabia extending its 1 million barrel per day production cut into September, the respite from gasoline rising may not last long. Plus, there remain unknowns about hurricane season that will likely become more active in the weeks ahead.”

OIL PRICES

The price of crude oil has rallied for six straight weeks, closing at nearly $83 per barrel Friday before reaching that level in Sunday night trading before giving up some ground in early Monday trade. In recent days, fundamentals have remained solidly in control behind the upward move, as Saudi Arabia continues its severe 1 million barrel per day production cut, starving a global market for crude oil, driving prices higher. In addition, government data last week showed the largest weekly decline in U.S. crude oil inventories on record. Long positions in crude oil, also a sign of traders betting on the rally maintaining strength, rose to a five to one gap to short positions, the largest imbalance in the last several months.

OIL AND REFINED PRODUCTS

Last week’s report from the Energy Information Administration showed a 17-million-barrel drop in U.S. crude oil inventories, the largest single week drop on record, with inventories falling to nearly 440 million barrels, and now a 1% drop to the five year average range for this time of year. Gasoline inventories perked up, rising 1.5 million barrels, helping to put some downward pressure on wholesale gasoline prices, but even gasoline inventories stand 6% below the five year average for this time of year. Distillate inventories, which include diesel, fell 800,000 barrels, and are now 15% below their five-year average for this time of year. Implied gasoline demand, a proxy for retail consumption, rose 100,000bpd to 8.84 million barrels, while refinery utilization rates fell 0.7 percentage points to 92.7%. Gasoline production rose slightly to 9.8 million barrels per day, while distillate fuel production rose to 4.9 million barrels per day.

FUEL DEMAND

According to GasBuddy demand data driven by its Pay with GasBuddy™ fuel card, U.S. retail gasoline demand saw a 1.3% rise last week (Sun-Sat), a turnaround to what was lackluster peak gasoline demand for much of July. Broken down by PADD region, demand fell 0.0% in PADD 1, rose 2.5% in PADD 2, rose 3.8% in PADD 3, fell 2.5% in PADD 4, and fell 1.7% in PADD 5.

GAS PRICE TRENDS

• The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.69 per gallon, up 20 cents from last week, followed by $3.79, $3.49, $3.89, and $3.59 rounding out the top five most common prices.
• The median U.S. gas price is $3.69 per gallon, up 10 cents from last week and about 10 cents lower than the national average.
• The top 10% of stations in the country average $4.93 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.30 per gallon.
• The states with the lowest average prices: Mississippi ($3.31), Louisiana ($3.41), and Alabama ($3.43).
• The states with the highest average prices: California ($5.03), Washington ($4.96), and Hawaii ($4.71).

DIESEL PRICE TRENDS

• The most common U.S. diesel price stood at $3.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $4.19, $3.89, $4.09, and $4.29 rounding out the top five most common prices.
• The median U.S. diesel price is $3.99 per gallon, up 10 cents from last week and about 15 cents lower than the national average for diesel.
• Diesel prices at the top 10% of stations in the country average $5.09 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.61 per gallon.
• The states with the lowest average diesel prices: Texas ($3.75), Mississippi ($3.76), and Louisiana ($3.78).
• The states with the highest average diesel prices: Hawaii ($5.68), California ($5.40), and Washington ($5.02).