Delaware gas prices up 17 cents from Dec. 1 to Wednesday
Global unrest and conflict has been the main factor behind rising gas prices in Delaware, regionally and nationwide, a AAA spokeswoman said this week.
Flowing with a regional trend, Delaware’s price for a gallon of gas cost $2.37 on Wednesday, a 16-cent rise from the first of December.
Delaware’s prices have risen 17 cents in a month, the same as New Jersey’s — although that state’s regular gas costs on average 10 cents less — 2 cents more than more-expensive Pennsylvania and 4 cents more than Maryland, which Wednesday posted an average of $2.34 for a gallon of regular. Those prices in Delaware and New Jersey are nearly 20 cents more than at this same time last year.
AAA spokeswoman Ela Voluck pointed to militants blowing up a pipeline in Nigeria — one of the United States’s top five oil suppliers — and U.N. sanctions in Iran, which does not supply oil here but does in most countries globally, as two points of geopolitical concern affecting oil prices and, in turn, prices at the pump.
“The market lives off fear,” Voluck said Tuesday, “And unfortunately we bear the brunt of the speculation.”
The arrival of cold weather — the United States is the world’s largest heating-oil consumer — also affects gas prices in the winter, Voluck added.
Prices for a barrel of crude oil dropped about $1.50 from Tuesday to Wednesday, which did cause a drop of 1 cent in Delaware’s prices overnight. Voluck cautioned Delawareans, however, from expecting gas price reductions.
“Motorists are seeing higher prices and we don’t see any relief in sight,” Voluck said. “We don’t see them falling. We might see them rise a little bit more. How much more they’ll rise we don’t know. Never say never when it comes to gas prices.”
Delaware’s $3.23 average for a regular gallon of gas on Sept. 7 last year, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region of the U.S., is still the highest average ever recorded in the state. The $3.12 price recorded on July 18 — in the middle of the summer travel season — was the highest recorded this year.
Prices fell toward the end of the summer, until they stopped and hovered at just more than $2 last month before again rising. To follow gas prices locally, regionally and nationally, visit AAA’s Web site and the AAA fuel finder at www.aaa.com.