Since Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by four cents to $2.67. The national average continues to increase as crude prices march higher. Gas prices have also increased from longer-than-expected refinery outages due to last week’s winter storm that impacted the Gulf Coast. As refineries restart and resume normal operations, supply is expected to increase in impacted areas and should bring stability to pump prices. Until then, most drivers should expect pump prices to continue increasing through the weekend. 

At the close of Thursday’s formal trading session, WTI increased by 31 cents to settle at $63.52 — the highest settlement price since May 2019. Crude prices have increased this week due to growing market optimism that as vaccines become more available, crude demand will recover. Prices continue to increase despite the Energy Information Administration’s new weekly report revealing that total domestic crude inventories increased by 1.3 million bbl last week, bringing the supply level to 463 million bbl. However, if market optimism continues to increase, crude prices will likely end the week higher.

Largest Weekly Increases

• Since last Thursday, these 10 states have seen the largest increases in their averages: Arizona (+25 cents), Georgia (+16 cents), New Mexico (+15 cents), Texas (+15 cents), Minnesota (+15 cents), Arkansas (+15 cents), Iowa (+14 cents), Mississippi (+14 cents), Oklahoma (+14 cents) and Tennessee (+13 cents).