NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Gas prices are still well below last year's records, even as the summer driving season heats up.
"Right now, we're at $3.26 a gallon on average in Kansas," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas. "That's exactly where we were a week ago. Right before the Memorial Day weekend, we saw a bit of a jump both in Kansas and nationally. We saw a surge in demand, people filling up their tanks to head out on those Memorial Day weekend road trips."
Steward said that the fundamentals have helped to slow down the traditional seasonal rise in prices.
"What's been kind of balancing that is that crude oil has been fairly stable and fairly low in price recently," Steward said."I looked today and we're around $67 to $68 a barrel, which is lower than it has been in recent weeks. We've been in the low 70s."
Crude oil generally makes up slightly more than half of the base price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump.
A year ago, prices were much higher.
"We reached our all time record high gas price, both in Kansas and nationally in the middle of June," Steward said. "We were on that path headed up to those records. A year ago, we were at $4.19 a gallon in Kansas, so 93 cents more. Nationally, we were at $4.67, which is $1.10 higher than what the national average is."
Barring a series of supply shortening events, Steward does not expect prices to get anywhere near those records this summer.