Updated: Gas prices remain stable and may have peaked

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AAA believes gas prices may have reached their peak price for the year, since the beginning of the pandemic, excluding any major hurricane activity that could disrupt gas and oil supplies.

Delaware saw a high of $2.25 in late July, with regular dropping by a penny in the past week. The gap between South Jersey and Delaware gas prices has narrowed to seven cents a gallon. New Jersey’s gas tax is 18 cents higher than the Delaware. Despite full-service pumps and the higher gas tax, motorists on average pay less in the southern part of the Garden State.

AAA Mid-Atlantic is based in Wilmington.

Monday gas price averages:

  • Pennsylvania gas average at $2.43 today, unchanged overnight and up a penny in the last week.  
  • New Jersey gas average at $2.17 today, unchanged overnight and up a penny in the last week.
  • Delaware gas average at $2.20 today, unchanged overnight and down a penny in the last week.  
  • Maryland gas average at $2.24 today, unchanged overnight and down a penny in the last week.
  • Philadelphia (5-county) area gas average at $2.39 today, down a penny overnight and unchanged in the last week.  
  • S. Jersey gas average at $2.13 today, unchanged overnight and up a penny in the last week.  
  • Wilkes-Barre area gas average at $2.41 today, unchanged overnight and up 2 cents in the last week.
  • National gas average at $2.18 today, unchanged overnight and up a penny in the last week.  

The Costco store south of Newark continues to have the lowest prices in Delaware at $2 a gallon.

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At the close of NYMEX trading Friday, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil settled at $42.34 per barrel, 33 cents higher than last Friday’s close.

Crude prices have been held lower as a result of concerns over this week’s jobless claims and what that could do to gasoline demand.

Domestic crude prices decreased despite the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly report revealing that total domestic inventories decreased.

So far, the minimal increases in crude prices have not had a noticeable impact on pump prices, but if prices stay above $45 per barrel for a prolonged period of time, consumers could see gas prices at their local stations increase.

“Gas prices have stalled at the vast majority of pumps,” says Jana L. Tidwell, manager of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Concerns over employment numbers and the spread of the Covid-19 virus continue to keep prices for both gas and oil down, meaning we may have already seen the peak, since the beginning of the pandemic, for gas prices this year.”

Motorists have seen the national average slowly decrease, down to today’s average of $2.18 despite gasoline demand last week reaching the highest figure since mid-March, according to the latest EIA weekly report. EIA expects gasoline will gradually decrease through the rest of the summer to an average of $2.04 per gallon in September before falling to an average of $1.99 per gallon in the fourth quarter.

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