Houston — The national US price of gasoline at the pump reached $2.87/gal in the first week of August, the highest the average has been in the month of August since 2014, according to a blog the AAA automotive group posted Monday.
According to AAA, US gasoline prices in the first week of August rose 1 cent/gal compared with the last week of July. This brought average US prices to about the same level as in the first week of July.
AAA said prices at the US pump are now 52 cents/gal above the same time last year and attributed this to a tightening supply-demand balance, citing data from the US Energy Information Administration.
According to the latest weekly EIA data, implied gasoline demand, measured as product supplied, averaged 9.878 million b/d in the last week of July, just shy of the all-time high of 9.879 million b/d reported in the week that ended June 8.
The EIA data also show total US gasoline inventories fell from about 240 million barrels at the end of June to about 231 million barrels at the end of July.
"We are likely going to see an end of summer pump price rally as inventories continue to tighten, especially on the East Coast," said Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokeswoman, in Monday's blog post.
"This week's EIA demand and inventory reports will give further indication of how much higher the national gas price average could jump before summer is over," she added.
The next weekly EIA data will be published Wednesday morning.
S&P Global Platts does not assess gasoline prices at the pump, but Platts data for August show numerous gasoline assessments in key markets are trending at levels last seen in the summer of 2014, which lines up with AAA's data.
In New York Harbor, benchmark RBOB barges were assessed at $2.133/gal on Friday, some 52.4 cents above the year-ago assessment. The assessment also posted its highest average for the first week of August since the first week of August 2014.
Benchmark CBOB in Houston on the Colonial Pipeline -- one of America's most liquid gasoline cash markets -- shows a similar pattern. On Friday, it was assessed at $1.9805/gal, up 43.26 cents compared with the assessment on August 3, 2017. Like New York Harbor RBOB, 2018 has seen US Gulf Coast CBOB at its highest average price in the first week of August since 2014.
