AAA: Western PA Gas Prices Increase; National Demand Continues to Rise
Gas prices in Western Pennsylvania are up three cents this week to $3.035 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                  $3.035
Average price during the week of April 19, 2021                                       $3.002
Average price during the week of April 27, 2020                                       $2.082

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:      

$2.993      Altoona
$3.073      Beaver
$3.099      Bradford
$3.006      Brookville
$3.056      Butler
$2.999      Clarion
$3.001      DuBois
$3.076      Erie
$2.992      Greensburg
$3.050      Indiana
$3.013      Jeannette
$3.005      Kittanning
$3.009      Latrobe
$3.087      Meadville
$3.099      Mercer
$2.921      New Castle
$3.076      New Kensington
$3.099      Oil City
$3.029      Pittsburgh
$2.999      Sharon
$3.008      Uniontown
$3.099      Warren
$3.004      Washington

Trend Analysis:
At 9.1 million barrels-per-day, U.S. gasoline demand recorded its second highest measurement since mid-March 2020, indicating that motorists are filling up more often. This latest demand reading is the highest spring number released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in two years. In fact, it is only about 3% below the same week in 2019.

 

Both demand and supply have steadily increased in the past five weeks, but weekly gasoline supply builds are trending less substantial. On the week, supply only saw a 100,000 barrel build to 234.9 million barrels, most likely due to high consumer demand.

 

The jump in demand combined with the small increase in supply pushed the national gas price average two cents more expensive on the week to $2.88. This is the largest one-week national increase in the last five weeks.

 

Cheaper crude oil prices, which are mostly pricing at less than $63 per barrel, and stable and strong refinery utilization (85%) are helping to keep pump price increases at moderate levels. On the week, 35 state averages increased with the majority seeing only one to three cent jumps.

 

Motorists can find current gas prices nationwide, statewide, and countywide at GasPrices.AAA.com.

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 73 local offices in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia serving 2.7 million members.  News releases are available at news.eastcentral.aaa.com.  Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.