Gas prices have jumped again — reaching highest level of the year
Gas prices in Florida surged again last week and on Friday reached a 2023 high of $3.84 a gallon — 58 cents more than what we paid during the July Fourth holiday weekend.
At least one petroleum analyst is warning that climbing gas prices begin to affect the U.S. economy as early as next month.
And travel club AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins noted in his weekly Gas Price Update that “Florida gas prices are now the highest since August of last year.”
Two major factors are to blame, experts agree.
At least four fuel refineries in Texas and Louisiana suffered outages caused at least in part by high summer temperatures, said Patrick De Haan, head of fuel analysis for the price comparison website GasBuddy.com, according to a story on Monday by Politico.
A spokesman for the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers confirmed to Politico that some refineries saw unplanned outages that can be attributed to weather as well as unexpected maintenance after periods of high utilization.
The second factor is Saudi Arabia’s production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day, which the nation is extending into September. De Haan called the cut “severe” in his weekly blog on Monday and accused the Saudis of “starving a global market for crude oil” and “driving prices higher.”
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil hit $83 before dipping slightly over the weekend and was trading at just below $82 late Monday morning.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott posted a link to the Politico story on X, formerly known as Twitter, along with a message blaming the “Democrats’ war on American energy.” Scott added, “We must start producing more American energy so we can bring gas prices down.”
Gasoline stocks were 6% below the five year average while distillate inventories, which include diesel, fell 800,000 barrels and are now 15% below normal, according to last week’s petroleum supply report from the Energy Information Administration.
GasBuddy and AAA both said gas price increases should ease over the next couple of weeks as schools reopen across the nation and family driving vacations come to an end.
But all bets are off as hurricane season reaches its peak in September and October.
“The majority of Florida’s gasoline is supplied by refineries along the Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines. Gas prices could spike just based on the mere threat of a hurricane making landfall in this region. How high gas prices go from there —and for how long — would then be based on whether those refineries suffered any long-term damage,” Jenkins said.
De Haan also warned that gasoline prices could surge again as hurricane season heats up. He said the Federal Reserve Board needs to monitor rising gas prices as a threat to the economy. As soon as September, “We’re going to be going from disinflation potentially back to inflation when we talk about the price of gasoline,” De Haan told Politico.
In South Florida, where gas prices are typically higher than the state average because of the higher cost of doing business, Broward County’s average price was $3.85, Palm Beach County’s average was $3.96 and Miami-Dade’s was $3.78.
Yet, motorists who know where to look were finding lower prices.
According to GasBuddy.com’s low-price charts, Broward’s cheapest gas could be found for $3.34 at Marathon at 10295 Stirling Road in Cooper City. In Palm Beach County, a Mobil station at 4201 Northlake Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens, was selling for $3.49, and in Miami-Dade, drivers were pumping for $3.25 a gallon at Shell, 7195 W. 12th Ave., Hialeah.
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.