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Consumer gasoline prices soar as oil prices plunge, with wholesale fuel prices hitting record highs in parts of the U.S. West Coast On Friday, September 23, U.S. WTI crude oil futures fell more than 6% intraday, dropping to $78 a barrel. But gas stations on the West Coast and Midwest turned a blind eye, and gasoline prices soared. Affected by unexpected shutdowns of many refineries and planned equipment maintenance, wholesale fuel prices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland hit record highs this week, resulting in seasonal inventories hitting a 14-year low. A similar situation is playing out in the U.S. Midwest, where a deadly refinery fire sent wholesale gasoline in Chicago surging to the most expensive level ever relative to futures. Meanwhile, gasoline prices are rising again in many states across the country, as are the national averages, according to the American Automobile Association AAA. The surge in oil prices contrasted sharply with moves in oil and gasoline futures markets, as traders focused on a deteriorating global economic outlook. Signs of a slowdown in the U.S. economy — from weak fuel demand to a collapsing freight market — are hard to ignore, not to mention that this week’s 75-basis-point rate hike by the Federal Reserve has undoubtedly made U.S. growth worse. For ordinary Americans, who are struggling with severe inflation, rising gasoline prices are another burden they have to bear. Without timely restocking, gasoline prices in the Midwest and across the U.S. could remain elevated. Gasoline supplies in California, the largest state in the U.S. economy, come mainly from imports from Asia and Europe, and tankers often take weeks to arrive. Ship tracking data shows that a Nord Harmony will unload gasoline in Los Angeles in the next few days, but no more gasoline imports in the short term means that fuel costs for Californians will remain high for quite some time. . After rebounding in May and June, WTI crude oil futures prices continued to decline. The current price has fallen by about a third from its mid-June high. Nationally, gasoline prices present a different picture. Just this Wednesday, according to AAA data, the national average retail gasoline price was $3.68 a gallon, a slight increase of $0.01 from the previous day. This is the first time since June 14 this year that gasoline prices recorded a one-day month-on-month increase. This means that retail gasoline prices ended a 98-day losing streak, the longest losing streak since 2005 and the second-longest gasoline losing streak in U.S. history. Compared with the record high of $5.016 per gallon on June 14, U.S. retail gasoline prices have fallen by nearly 27% this Wednesday after a continuous decline. Comments believe that the softening of gasoline prices in the United States stems from lower-than-normal peak-season demand during the peak of the summer driving season, the decline in crude oil prices due to the global economic slowdown, and the release of the strategic petroleum reserve by the Biden administration. This article is from Wall Street News, welcome to download the APP to see more |