NOTTINGHAM, MD—Spooky gas prices continue to haunt motorists heading into Halloween weekend as the nation’s average gas price increased 3.8 cents from a week ago and stands at $3.36 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 is up 17.1 cents from a month ago and $1.21 per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has risen 5.9 cents in the last week and stands at $3.58 per gallon.

“Gas prices continued to soar in a majority of the nation over the last week as oil’s meteoric rise pulls gasoline and other refined product prices higher. But, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “The sharp rise we’ve seen over the last three weeks should begin slowing down soon, barring another jump in the price of oil. This is because gasoline prices have now largely caught up to the jump in oil that started nearly a month ago. This isn’t an all clear for the future, however, as oil prices could rise again at any time. But for now, oil has held around $83 per barrel, and without a further climb, gas price increases should slow down soon in the bulk of the nation.”

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.29 per gallon, up 20c/gal from last week, followed by $3.09, $3.19, $2.99 and $3.39 rounding out the five most common prices.  The average cost at the priciest 10% of stations stands at $4.27 per gallon, up 2 cents from a week ago, while the lowest 10% average $2.92 per gallon, up 7 cents from a week ago.  The median U.S. price is $3.27 per gallon, up 8 cents from last week and about 9 cents lower than the national average.  The states with the lowest average prices: Oklahoma ($2.98), Arkansas ($3.02) and Texas ($3.02).  The states with the highest priced states: California ($4.51), Hawaii ($4.21) and Nevada ($3.93).

“With the U.S. economy slowly recovering from the depths of the pandemic, demand for gas is robust, but the supply is tight,” said AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross. “We haven’t seen prices this high since September of 2014.”

In the NottinghamMD.com coverage area, the cheapest gas as of Monday was located at BP (8809 Belair Road, 21236), with regular gas selling for $2.97 per gallon, unchanged from last week.  Sam’s Club (6410 Petrie Way, 21237) and Carroll Motor Fuels (9525 Pulaski Highway, 21220) each have regular gasoline at $3.13 per gallon, as of Monday.

Photo by Ingo Joseph from Pexels