NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas says consumers are in a better position at the pump now than they were in 2023.
"The Kansas average gas price has stayed pretty stable and still low at $2.90 a gallon, on average," Steward said. "That's down one cent in the past week and down 17 cents from where we were a month ago. The Kansas average is right now about 32 cents below the national average. That puts us at 10th lowest average gas price in the nation. Especially when we look at where we were in Kansas at $3.66 a gallon a year ago, certainly can't complain."
Area county average prices are on both sides of the state average.
Reno $2.68 (lowest in the state)
McPherson $2.76
Harvey $2.82
Sedgwick $2.95
Kingman $3.04
Pratt $2.99
Stafford $3.03
Rice $2.91
"Gas demand and oil costs are low right now," Steward said. "The West Texas Intermediate Crude price right now is just a little below $68 per barrel, which is fairly low. Demand has been fairly lackluster recently. Combine those two factors and that's what's keeping our gas prices low at the pumps."
It looks like we'll stay below $3 in Kansas for some time to come.
"There's not really any indicators currently that we're going to see any kind of big jumps in gas prices, or any jumps, for that matter for the foreseeable future," Steward said. "Certainly, things can always change geopolitically in the Middle East, or with hurricanes."
Generally, if hurricanes are in Florida or the southeast, they don't impact prices here much, but if they are in Louisiana and Texas, they could change prices in the short term.