Photo provided by AAA Tidewater.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Gas prices in Virginia are climbing as spring nears, and don’t expect them to fall when winter ends on March 20.
According to AAA Tidewater, regular gas prices in Hampton Roads are around $2.36 per gallon, which is 3 cents higher than last week and 27 cents higher than last year. The state average for Virginia is $2.35, an eight cent increase from last week and a 22 cent increase from last year.
“As demand strengthened, gasoline inventories declined, pushing the national gas price average two cents more expensive on the week to $2.55,” said Georjeane Blumling, AAA spokesperson. “As a result, the majority of motorists are seeing more expensive gas prices at the start of this work week.”
EIA also said that U.S. exports continue to trend high, accounting for a big part of the demand that has been seen in this week’s data.
The national average for gas right now is $2.55, which is two cents more than a month ago and more than a quarter, roughly 26 cents, higher than this time last year.
According to AAA Tidewater, a report from the International Energy Agency noted that global supply reached 97.9 million b/d last month, which was fueled by growth in domestic production in the U.S. The figure is 700,000 b/d higher than last year’s rate at this time. These findings gave the market some hope that although crude production is booming in the U.S., the newly produced oil will help meet global demand instead of helping global inventories grow.
IEA also expects that the latest monthly oil market report shows that global crude demand is expected to increase to 99.3 million b/d, an increase of 1.5 million b/d over 2017’s rate of 97.8 million b/d.
The latest weekly U.S. crude production rate record – 10.4 million b/d – was set last week, according to EIA. They expect that rate to also continue, with the support of growing active oil rigs in the nation.
The total is now 800, which is 169 more than last year at this time, according to AAA Tidewater.
