Gas prices in North Carolina and the national trends

ELIZABETHTOWN - Are gas prices that seemingly change with the weather driving you crazy? Perhaps some insight and education on the subject can at least let you navigate in this ever-present darkness.

Hello from Lumberton:

As you may or may not know, I’ve been tracking local gas markets in each of our circulation areas. About every few days — usually on Mondays and Wednesdays — I plug in local gas prices as reported by Gasbuddy.com.

I’ve attached the chart that shows this trend beginning March 1, 2023 (a little more than a year).

I know the attached low-res chart looks like a big blotch of color, but it shows that in all our markets, prices have followed a general trend, which mimics national and statewide trends, in all our markets, the average price of gas is usually lower than both the state and national averages. (blue is the national average, red is the North Carolina average).

Every few weeks are so I turn this into a story. Now’s a good time to run a story because we are emerging from winter and people are planning spring getaways.

I can share this Google chart, or just create a chart showing just your markets. If you would like any of this data, let me know.

Patrick De Haan who is the GasBuddy guru always has the latest up-to-date information concerning national gas prices and where America is heading in the race to keep fuel costs reasonable.

“It’s so different from state to city to region,” De Haan said concerning prices of gas. “Also, gas changes from ‘summer gas’ to ‘winter gas’ with the big difference being volatility. Every gas outlet now in the country now has started the transition.”

De Haan said that the problem is not necessarily the summer blends, but it’s going from supply that has been above average in the winter that all gets knocked out. At the end of the winter season, you can’t sell that winter gas anymore. So refiners get rid of it all. Right now they are basically starting to stockpile this summer gas. There’s not much in the stockpile yet because it just happened. This is contributing right now to the jolt and higher gas prices – until the stockpiles can be replenished, gas prices in the spring becomes more of a seller’s market.

De Haan who is the head of petroleum analysis has a new “Over a Barrel” podcast featuring De Haan and co-host Matt McClain. This podcast will keep you in the loop on fuel price trends – and they cover everything from hurricanes to pipeline outages. GasBuddy covers 150,000 gas stations in North America giving drivers 27 ways to save on fuel. Tune into the podcast at: https://patrickdehaan.com/podcast-2/