National gas prices rose again last week, gaining seven cents per gallon to reach $1.97. Demand continues to recover from the pandemic and stay at home orders this spring and provides some optimism to the recovery ethanol demand. However, GasBuddy reports the average price of diesel last week fell one cent to $2.49 a gallon.
And, Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy says, “The pace of increases has begun to throttle back over the last week in most states as gasoline demand’s recovery has slowed.” While crude oil prices continued their upward move over the last week, it has been a much slower rise than recent weeks. As the global economy continues a slow recovery and more countries ease up on travel restrictions, demand for oil has rebounded as supply remains lower due to the coronavirus curbing demand.
U.S. oil inventories saw a large 7.9 million barrel boost in last week’s data from the Energy Information Administration, while gasoline inventories fell again by some 700,000 barrels and distillate inventories jumped 5.5 million barrels.