Demand for Gasoline in US Surges for First Time Since June
DALLAS, Texas — Retail demand for gasoline in the U.S. jumped for the first time since June last week, with the peak demand occurring on the East and Gulf Coasts.
According to a blog post published Monday by Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, “U.S. gasoline demand was not only up every day over the week ago period but also over the four-week average.”
De Haan also reported this morning that the nation’s average gas price declined for the second straight week last week, dropping 7.3 cents from a week ago to $3.37 per gallon.
GasBuddy based that assessment on more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.
The national average is up 10.9 cents from a month ago and 10.2 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, the fuel price monitor and software company said.
The national average price of diesel has fallen 7.3 cents in the last week and stands at $4.52 per gallon.
Interestingly, demand seemed to be on the rise even as futures prices were going up from $2.32 per gallon on Feb. 3 to $2.50 per gallon on Feb. 10.
In conducting its analysis of the gasoline demand, GasBuddy relied on the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s defined “PADD regions.”
PADDs, also called “Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts,” are geographic aggregations of the 50 states and the District of Columbia into five districts.
PADD 1 is the East Coast; PADD 2, the Midwest; PADD 3, the Gulf Coast; PADD 4, the Rocky Mountain Region; and PADD, 5 the West Coast.
Due to its large population, PADD 1 is further divided into sub-PADDs, with PADD 1A as New England; PADD 1B, the central Atlantic states; and PADD 1C, the lower Atlantic states.
De Haan found that demand rose 1.7% last week, Sunday to Saturday, driven mostly by a dramatic jump in the Gulf Coast states.
Broken down by PADD region, demand rose 0.6% in PADD 1, fell 1.7% in PADD 2, rose 16.2% in PADD 3, fell 1.5% in PADD 4 and rose 1.5% in PADD 5.
De Haan forecast that the demand for gasoline will continue to rise “as we gradually see temperatures warm and the heart of winter moves to the rear view.”
But he also noted that refinery maintenance season will soon be in full force, likely putting upward pressure on prices.
“On average, gasoline prices rise between 35 and 85 cents per gallon between March and Memorial Day, so motorists seeing prices fall should enjoy the declines while they last,” he wrote.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
