PITTSBURGH — Gas prices in Western Pennsylvania are two cents cheaper this week at $3.343 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.
The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in Bradford is $3.390; Brookville, $3.365; DuBois, $3.323; Erie, $3.331; and in Warren, $3.459.
With the height of summer in the rearview mirror, motorists are seeing some relief at the pump, as the national gas price average dropped by a penny on the week to $3.17. However, the recovery from Hurricane Ida remains slow, with the latest U.S. data showing just under half of the U.S. offshore oil production in the Gulf still idle after companies shuttered production ahead of the storm.
Meanwhile, refinery utilization is down almost 10%, causing gasoline stock levels to fall by 7.2 million barrels to 220 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Stock levels are likely to remain tight until Ida-affected refineries resume normal operations. While refineries are reporting progress towards restarting, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it would release an additional 1.5 million barrels of crude oil held at the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help ease tightened supplies brought by Hurricane Ida.
