NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — According to Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas, prices have been stable for the most part in the last few weeks.
"Here in Kansas, we're actually down in the past week, one cent," Steward said. "We're at $2.83 a gallon on average, and that's seventh lowest in the nation right now. The national average, also a small fluctuation downward, down two cents to $3.19 a gallon this week. We have seen mostly a downward trend over the last several months. There was a slight fluctuation last week where we saw a small jump in the national average. But overall, we've been fairly seasonal in terms of that downward trend, both in demand and prices at the pump."
Area county average prices are on both sides of the state average.
Reno $2.677 (2nd lowest in the state; Leavenworth Co. is $2.675)
McPherson $2.72
Harvey $2.76
Sedgwick $2.90
Kingman $2.94
Pratt $2.95
Stafford $3.01
Rice $2.91
"Right now, crude oil prices are very low," Steward said. "They're just under $70 a barrel, and that's despite the ongoing tensions in the Middle East between Israel and Iran. Those really haven't, to this point, had any kind of impact on the prices we're seeing at the pumps here domestically."
There isn't any reason to believe that gas will get back above $3 a gallon through the rest of 2024.
"Barring any kind of unforeseen big changes, I don't see any major changes in what we see in terms of the gas prices the rest of the year," Steward said. "It kind of takes a while for all the summer blends to be used up and out of the system, but this is the time of year where we start seeing those winter blends coming back into market. And those are less expensive to produce and refine, so there is usually a slight downward impact on gas prices based on that."
To find out the latest prices wherever you drive, go to https://gasprices.aaa.com/.