Experts say gas prices holding steady for now

ALBANY — Although the average price of a gallon of gas has risen slightly more than 3 cents in metro Albany in the last week, local drivers were still seeing the second-lowest average among Georgia’s eight biggest metro areas Monday, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

On Monday, Albany motorists were paying $2.106 a gallon on average, three-tenths of a cent more than metro Macon drivers and well below the state average, which AAA pegged at $2.179 on Monday. That Georgia average was a tenth of a cent more than another national organization that surveys thousands of gas outlets — GasBuddy.

Both Albany and Georgia were well below the morning benchmarks the surveys showed nationally, which was at $2.28 a gallon after rising about a penny from Feb. 6.

While low prices are expected over the short-term, motorists can expect to see them rise shortly, experts with the two organizations said.

“Low demand is keeping downward pressure on gasoline prices,” Josh Carrasco, a spokesman for the AAA Auto Club Group, said. “OPEC’s cuts are being offset by increases in domestic oil production, high gasoline and oil inventories, and a drop in gasoline demand.

“Gas prices should remain steady in the near-term before taking their seasonal upswing as we head into the spring.”

Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, had a similar outlook, saying the “era of falling gasoline prices will likely be coming to an end soon at a gas station near you. Not to say declines are completely done, but over the next few weeks we’ll likely see more times when stations are raising their prices then dropping them, thanks to gasoline demand that will soon begin recovering and crude oil imports that will soon reflect OPEC’s lower output.”

DeHaan noted that gas usually rises 35-65 cents per gallon from its “low price, usually in February, through Memorial Day, and there’s no reason to believe the same won’t happen this year, so buckle up.”

Compared to early February 2016, gas prices already are considerably higher. Nationally, motorists are paying 58 more a gallon than on Feb. 13, 2016, when the national average was slightly below $1.70. Georgia drivers are paying 52.5 cents more than the $1.655 they were paying last year, and metro Albany drivers were paying 52.9 cents more than 2016’s $1.577.

On a 20-gallon fill-up, a motorist is paying more than $10.50 locally and more than $11.60 nationally than last February.

According to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the highest average in Georgia on Monday was in metro Savannah, where drivers were paying $2.21 a gallon, about a penny higher than metro Atlanta’s average.

Carrasco said the Energy Information Administration shows weekly gas demand in January was down 6 percent compared to January 2016 and that the agency is forecasting a national average of $2.39 in 2017.