While average gas prices in Western Pennsylvania jumped 4 cents, Bradford’s average shed a nickel to stand at $3.809 Monday.
Regional prices increased to $3.759 per gallon, according to AAA East Central.
It was $3.593 in Brookville, $3.796 in DuBois, $3.765 in Erie and $3.798 in Warren.
Pennsylvania’s cheapest station checked in at $3.09 per gallon Monday, while the costliest would run motorists $4.39 – a difference of $1.30 per gallon per GasBuddy reports. Despite rising 3.1 cents during the last week to $3.59 per gallon, average Pennsy pump prices remain 9.6 cents lower than a month ago and 31.1 cents lower than a year ago.
Nationally, gas averages hit their lowest point since the beginning of June, standing at $3.41 per gallon this week. That’s 3.2 cents less than last week, 11.6 cents less than last month and 42.5 cents less than last year.
For diesel, GasBuddy reported, Americans could expect to pay an average of $3.72 per gallon Monday — 3.4 cents less than a week ago and the lowest level since January 2022.
“As summer driving season comes to a gradual close, we continue to see gasoline prices declining in most of the country as demand remains muted. Incredibly, the drop has also caused diesel fuel prices to crumble to their lowest level since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “As long as we can avoid a major hurricane threatening refineries in the Gulf region, I believe we could see declines continue into this week, with the national average potentially dipping to its lowest level of the summer. However, should economic data come in better than expected, there still could be a short-lived rally. While some states may also see gas prices rise due to routine price cycling, primarily in the Great Lakes and Florida, prices across the board remain lower in every state compared to a year ago.”
According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand fell from 9.25 million barrels per day to 8.96 last week. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks rose from 223.8 to 225.1 million barrels. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 10.0 million barrels per day. Crude oil production hit an all-time high of 13.4 million barrels per day.
At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate rose by $2.03 to settle at $75.23 a barrel. The EIA reports that crude oil inventories decreased by 3.7 million barrels from the previous week. At 429.3 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.
