The average retail gasoline price in the US stood at $2.22/gallon on Monday ahead of this year’s Labor Day weekend, data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed. According to EIA, the price was the lowest for this time of year in the last 16 years. Gasoline prices are relatively low due to weak demand since mid-March caused by travel restrictions as an effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
The weekly average retail gasoline price in the US dropped to $1.77/gallon on April 27 amid the height of coronavirus lockdowns. It increased to more than $2.00/gallon by early June and has remained relatively steady through July and August, but prices remained 18% lower than a year earlier.
US Monthly motor gasoline product supplied, a proxy for demand, fell to 5.85 million bpd in April 2020, 37% lower than April last year and the lowest since 1974. By the end of June, gasoline consumption improved to about 10% below last year’s level and has been flat through the week ended August 28. US gasoline consumption remains 9% below the five-year average of 2015-2019.
Hurricane Laura caused unplanned outages of gasoline production on the Gulf Coast. However, inventory remained high and continued to weigh on local retail prices. As of August 31, USGC retail gasoline prices rose 2.3 cents/gallon from the previous week, weaker than the national weekly increase of 4.0 cents/gallon. USGC gasoline prices averaged $1.86/gallon in July through August, down 21% from a year earlier.
On the East Coast, retail gasoline prices were relatively stable at $2.10/gallon in July and August, 19% lower than a-year-ago level. In the Midwest, prices were down 20% to an average of $2.09/gallon over the same period, while prices in the Rocky Mountain region fell 14% to an average of $2.34/gallon.
