NOTTINGHAM, MD—The nation’s average gas price has fallen 0.5 cents per gallon from a week ago to $3.17 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The national average now stands unchanged from a month ago and $1.01 per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen a penny in the last week and stands at $3.28 per gallon.

“As the number of COVID cases continues to surge globally, oil prices continue to be under pressure due to some countries instituting travel and movement limitations. This limits oil demand, which has led to the increase in gas prices slowing, and many states seeing slight drops compared to prices a week ago,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “In addition, the tropics are heating up, which could be a source of upward pressure on gas prices should we see a major hurricane target the Gulf Coast. However, without such a storm, gas prices may see some stability over the coming week or two, before slowly decreasing as the summer driving season wraps up.”

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists was $2.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $2.89, $3.09 and $2.95.  The average cost at the priciest 10% of stations stands at $4.24 per gallon, up 1 cent from a week ago, while the lowest 10% average $2.71 per gallon, unchanged from a week ago. The median U.S. price is $2.99 per gallon, down a penny from last week and about 17 cents lower than the national average. The states with the lowest average prices: Mississippi ($2.77), Louisiana ($2.81) and Oklahoma ($2.83). The states with the highest priced states: California ($4.39), Nevada ($4.04) and Hawaii ($4.03).

In the NottinghamMD.com coverage area, the cheapest gas as of Monday was located at Costco (9919 Pulaski Highway) and at Sam’s Club (6410 Petrie Way). The price per gallon for regular gas was $2.85 at each location, down from $2.89 last week.

Photo by Ingo Joseph from Pexels