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| Chattanooga Gas Prices provided by GasBuddy.com |
Chattanooga gas prices jumped another 13.5 cents per gallon last week, pushing up the average price of regular gas to a four-month high of $1.95 a gallon at the start of this week, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 170 gas outlets in Chattanooga released Monday.
Over the past month, gas prices in Chattanooga have jumped 47 cents a gallon, on average, from the 30-year lows reached in February. Chattanooga gas prices, which were below the rest of Tennessee through January and February, also rose above the average price in all other metro areas of Tennessee last week, according to both GasBuddy.com and AAA fuel gauge price surveys.
Chattanooga gas prices still average 9 cents a gallon less than the U.S. average, but local gas prices have been rising faster than the U.S. as a whole for most of the past month. Nationwide, gas prices last week rose 5.6 cents per gallon to $2.04 a gallon.
The primary reason for the rise in gasoline prices is the 50 percent spike in the American oil benchmark from $26 a barrel on Feb. 11 to nearly $40 a barrel today. Crude Oil futures closed Monday below $40 a barrel, down 0.7 percent inlight trading.
But seasonal factors also have pushed gas prices higher, including higher use of gas for spring break road trips and the change by many refineries to produce summer blends.
“The rise in gasoline prices comes as refinery maintenance begins kicking into high gear,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. “It’s not a fun time to be filling up as gasoline prices see their typical seasonal rise.”
DeHaan said “motorists shouldn’t necessarily expect the worst increases to be over just yet” even though the commodity price of oil hasn’t been rising as fast in the past week.
“Until the bulk of refinery maintenance season wraps up in late May, we likely won’t see the lower oil prices immediately bring relief to the pump as oil and gasoline inventories continue to move in the opposite direction,” he said.
Despite the jump in prices in the past month, fuel prices are still only about half of the $3.70 per gallon they were at in March of 2012 in Chattanooga, according to GasBuddy.com records.
GasBuddy said the cheapest gas in the Chattanooga area Monday was at the Pure station on Hixson Pike near Carter Drive, where regular gas fell Monday to $1.72 per gallon.
The Energy Department last month projected the average retail price for regular gasoline this year would be $1.89 a gallon, down from $2.43 for 2015.
Economists and energy experts say restaurants and the travel business have benefited from cheaper gas this year, but the benefits to the economy have been surprisingly muted.
“People still have more money to spend,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service. “The mystery is: Are people spending it, or are they saving it, or are they paying off some debt?”
Information from The New York Times was used in this story.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfree press.com or at 423-757-6340.