According to GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan, the lowest petrol price days of the season are now behind drivers in the US, with the spring surge in petrol prices just around the corner.
The head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy tweeted on Thursday morning, encouraging people to “buckle up” and adding that the price bottoms were “nearly definitively behind us.“
Last week, when prices were just a penny over $3 per gallon, petrol prices reached their lowest point of the year. Before driving season returned and prices started to rise again, De Haan had previously predicted that prices could drop below $3 per gallon. However, crude oil prices have been keeping petrol prices below floor level.
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil have increased over the past week to over $76 per barrel. Up over $2.20 from the same time previous week.
The switch from cheaper winter petrol to the more expensive summer blend and rising demand usually cause prices to spike in the spring, so GasBuddy is now alerting American drivers to the possibility of periodic price increases through spring.
Additionally, De Haan forewarned Californian drivers on Wednesday to anticipate a sizable increase in petrol prices as the Southern California market has already shifted to start trading the summer petrol mandated by CARB as of yesterday. As of April 1, California is require to comply with this.
Despite the fact that the latest EIA data shows that petrol demand dropped below 8 million barrels per day, rising petrol prices are still anticipated.
It now seems unlikely that the national average price of regular petrol for a gallon will drop to $2.99 or less.