The national gas price average has increased 3 cents since Monday to $3.18. AAA expected at least a 3-5 cent jump following the storm and taking into account anticipated demand surrounding the holiday weekend.

Outside of Ida-impacted areas, gasoline supply is ample for holiday road-trippers, who should expect to pay the most expensive Labor Day weekend gas prices since 2014.  However, within Louisiana and Mississippi, many areas are still without power and experiencing flooding and road closures. As power is being slowly restored, AAA urges motorists in the affected area that if they do not need to fill-up, don’t. There is ample gasoline supply in the U.S.; any constriction is just a matter of fuel trucks being able to access open roads as flooding dries out and power is restored.

Hurricane Ida took 13 percent of U.S. refining capacity offline. Those refineries are assessing building infrastructure and damage. While no re-start dates have been announced, we anticipate operations beginning within the next 3 weeks. According to recent reports, the NuStar terminal and Phillips 66’s terminal in Linden, NJ are closed due to continuing impacts from the storm, which will likely put pressure on stocks in the days ahead as service is restored.

Constrained stock levels and high crude prices, which have climbed as 96 percent of oil production in the Gulf Coast region remains shuttered, will keep pump prices elevated over the holiday weekend. At the close of Thursday’s formal trading session, WTI increased by $1.40 to settle at $69.99.

Largest Weekly Increases

• Since last Thursday, these 10 states have seen the largest increases in their averages: Indiana (+15 cents), Ohio (+14 cents), Kentucky (+12 cents), Michigan (+7 cents), North Carolina (+7 cents), Tennessee (+7 cents), Florida (+6 cents), New Mexico (+6 cents), New York (+5 cents) and Oklahoma (+4 cents).