NOTTINGHAM, MD—For the first time in the last four weeks, the nation’s average price of gasoline has decreased, falling 0.8 cents from a week ago to $3.64 per gallon this week 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 22.8 cents from a month ago but 46.4 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 3.0 cents in the last week and stands at $4.12 per gallon, 95.0 cents lower than one year ago.

“For the first time in several weeks, the national average price of gasoline has seen a decline, and while the fall was quite small, the bigger news may be that we may have seen a short-term peak for the price of gasoline. While any unexpected outages could push it up again, there is a rising possibility that barring such, we may have seen our high water mark for the national average for the summer,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

“Typically, gas prices peak between May and June, and with the oil market showing significant cracks in strength, we may have seen the peak in the national average already occur, a few weeks earlier than average,” De Haan added. “While it’s possible we could go higher later this summer should a major hurricane target sensitive infrastructure, it appears the odds that the national average will miss the $4 per gallon mark are rising. It’s certainly looking optimistic for motorists.”

The most common U.S. diesel price stood at $3.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $3.89, $4.09, $4.19, and $3.79 rounding out the top five most common prices. The median U.S. diesel price is $3.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week and about 13 cents lower than the national average for diesel. Diesel prices at the top 10% of stations in the country average $5.12 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $3.44 per gallon. The states with the lowest average diesel prices: Texas ($3.59), Louisiana ($3.77), and Mississippi ($3.80). The states with the highest average diesel prices: Hawaii ($5.81), California ($5.20), and Washington ($4.95).

See previous gas price reports here

In the Baltimore metro area, the cheapest gas this week could be found at the following locations:

Photo via Pixabay