NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas told Hutch Post Thursday that the pain at the pump hasn't gotten much worse in the past week.
"We have continued to see gas prices rise," Steward said. "I guess the story this week, though, would be that increase has slowed, compared to what we saw last week. We're only up one cent on average in Kansas this week, to $3.15 a gallon. A week ago, when we talked, the price had jumped 21 cents in the previous week. Quite a difference this week. We seem to have settled in, I guess, for the time being."
Area county averages, with change from a week ago:
Reno: $2.93 -2
McPherson: $3.11 +9
Harvey: $3.03 -6
Sedgwick: $3.17 +8
Kingman: $3.14 +22
Pratt: $3.17 +4
Stafford: $3.12 +19
Rice: $3.10 -2
"As we head into summer driving season, vacation season, demand will likely be high," Steward said. "We anticipate a busy travel season, as we seem to have every year. Also, looking at crude oill prices, they are hovering now a little less than $81 a barrel, which is certainly higher than we've seen in the first quarter of 2024. That's something to watch, as well."
There may be fundamental reasons that increase is happening, too, with the situation just off of the Arabian peninsula remaining volatile.
"There's always global concerns, when there's anything that could interrupt the supply or the delivery of crude oil," Steward said. "That's definitely something that's on people's minds and has been watched ever since the conflict in the Middle East started. I've also seen that OPEC+ may be continuing its production cuts throughout the year."
More than half of the price of a gallon of gas at the pump is derived from the underlying price of the barrel of oil from which it is refined.
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