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By Steven Herbert
The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose Wednesday for the 12th time in 13 days, increasing seven-tenths of a cent to $4.976.
The average LA price has increased 8.8 cents over the past 13 days, including 1.1 cents Tuesday, according to figures from the AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. It is 5.5 cents more than one week ago and eight-tenths of a cent more than one month ago, but $1.147 lower than one year ago.
The LA County average gasoline price has dropped $1.525 since rising to a record $6.494 on Oct. 5.
The Orange County average price rose 1.3 cents to $4.914, one day after a run of nine increases in 11 days totaling 8.7 cents ended when it was unchanged. It is 5.5 cents more than one week ago, but one-tenth of a cent less than one month ago and $1.145 lower than one year ago.
The Orange County average price has dropped $1.49 since rising to a record $6.459 on Oct. 5.
The national average price was unchanged at $3.541, a day after dropping two-tenths of a cent. It is 1.9 cents more than one week ago, but 5.3 cents less than one month ago and $1.114 lower than one year ago.
The national average price has dropped $1.475 since rising to a record $5.016 on June 14, 2022.
“After declining going into July 4, average gasoline prices have struggled to find much momentum in either direction as the price of crude oil has continued to bounce around, digesting offsetting news on both sides of the scale: supply, which OPEC+ continues to try and tighten, and weak global demand as monetary policy restrains growth,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which provides real-time gas price information from more than 150,000 stations.
“I don’t see much chance of a major break out of the tight range we’ve held since April, but there is rising risk for hurricane season and potential disruptions as major forecaster Colorado State University released its third forecast for the 2023 hurricane season, showing a sharp uptick in the number of expected major hurricanes.
“Heading into the prime of summer gasoline demand, any disruptions, whether storms or unexpected outages and what might be a small challenge outside of the summer driving season, could be a larger problem, so there is some risk to gas prices going into the second half of summer.”
