PROVIDENCE – Gasoline prices in Rhode Island have fallen for the second week in a row, AAA Southern New England reported today.
The auto club’s Sept. 14 survey found the average price of self-serve, unleaded regular at Ocean State stations was $2.66 per gallon, down 1 cent from last week.
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The price of crude oil, which has risen 53 percent so far this year, was trading around $68 a barrel this morning following a report from the U.S. Energy Department that showed the country’s stockpile of distillate fuel, including heating oil and diesel, to be at its highest level since 1983, according to Bloomberg News.
Traders are growing concerned that oil prices have risen faster than warranted considering the continued weakness in the economy, Bloomberg said. Furthermore, gasoline consumption usually falls in the U.S. during September and October, which lets refiners do maintenance work before demand for home heating oil increases.
“The ‘driving season’ is over and supplies are greater today than in May,” Stephen Schork, president of consultant Schork Group Inc. in Villanova, Pa., said in a note to clients quoted by Bloomberg.
“We’re still waiting to see if the fundamentals can catch up with the sentiment in the oil market,” Toby Hassall, a research analyst at CWA Global Markets in Sydney, Australia, told Bloomberg. “There definitely seems to be a bit of significant resistance being encountered once we get into the $70s.”
In its survey, AAA found prices in Rhode Island ranging from $2.52 to $2.85 per gallon for unleaded regular. At $2.66, the average price per gallon in Rhode Island is 9 cents higher than the average price nationwide of $2.57.
A year ago, gas prices in Rhode Island were in the midst of their rapid descent from the record highs of the previous summer, but still stood at $3.55 per gallon, according to AAA.
At stations in Rhode Island this week, the survey found average self-serve prices of $2.81 per gallon for midgrade unleaded, $2.93 for premium unleaded gasoline, and $2.74 for diesel.
Prices at the pump fell in Massachusetts fell as well, with the average price for self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline declining to $2.61 per gallon, a 1 cent drop from Sept. 7.
That price is $1.01 below the year-ago level, but still 3 cents above the national average.
For more information, visit AAA.com.
