GasBuddy’s U.S. gasoline average fell 17.1 cents over the week to $4.12 per gallon in its Nov. 2 reading, easing fuel costs for motorists while remaining $1.13 above its level a year earlier.
GasBuddy said its calculation drew on more than 12 million individual reports about prices at over 150,000 stations. The company described the weekly decline as unusually steep by recent standards. It also said the average was 24.7 cents below its level a month earlier, while its diesel average fell 5.9 cents to $6.281 per gallon.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) listed regular gasoline at $4.1493 per gallon on Nov. 3, compared with $4.2661 in its week-ago column. The AAA figure is a separate reading from GasBuddy’s and was recorded a day later. AAA says its price page updates daily at about 3 a.m. ET. It says OPIS surveys up to 120,000 stations using credit-card data, alongside direct sales data from fuel retailers and crowdsourced prices.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that gasoline stocks increased by 3.9 million barrels to 209.2 million barrels in the week ending Oct. 23. Finished motor gasoline product supplied, a proxy for retail demand, was 8.358 million barrels per day, down 625,000 barrels per day from the previous week. Refinery utilization stood at 92.8%, a decline of 0.6 percentage point. The figures showed inventories rising as the demand proxy and refinery use fell.
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, said the easing followed reduced refinery maintenance and softer seasonal demand as temperatures cooled. The Nov. 2 reading came a day before the midterm election. De Haan cautioned that “volatility could return quickly after the election.”
The EIA’s next weekly product-supplied data release is scheduled for Nov. 4.
