Since Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has decreased by a penny to $2.18, which is two cents less than a week ago, one cent more than a month ago, but still significantly cheaper than last year (-41 cents). In the new weekly report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand saw a slight uptick from 8.39 million b/d to 8.48 million b/d. However, demand is still 461,000 b/d lower than where it was at this time last year. Lower demand has helped pump prices to decline this week, while total domestic gasoline stocks fell by 400,000 bbl to 231.5 million bbl. Low demand will likely help pump prices to continue their descent as fall approaches. 

At the close of Thursday’s formal trading session, WTI increased by 86 cents to settle at $41.02. Domestic crude prices increased after EIA’s weekly report revealed that total domestic crude inventories decreased by 4.4 million bbl last week to 496 million bbl. Decreasing stocks could signal that supply and demand are beginning to rebalance, even as crude production grew by 900,000 b/d last week to 10.9 million b/d. Crude prices may continue to increase if supplies grow tighter, but demand challenges could contain potential growth in prices. 

Largest Weekly Decreases

• Since last Thursday, these 10 states have seen the largest decreases in their averages: Ohio (-7 cents), Kentucky (-7 cents), Washington, D.C. (-6 cents), Indiana (-5 cents), South Carolina (-4 cents), Delaware (-4 cents), North Carolina (-4 cents), Tennessee (-4 cents), Florida (-4 cents) and North Dakota (-4 cents).