AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- With demand for gasoline continuing to fall due to COVID-19, so does the price Austinites are paying at the pump.
AAA Texas says the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel in the Austin area is $1.54 this week, down four cents from last week and down 96 cents from a week ago.
Across the state, the average is down four cents to $1.53, which is $1.06 less than a year ago. Nationally, the average is also down four cents to $1.79.
Midland continues to see the state's highest average, at $1.78 a gallon, while Sherman and Denison drivers are paying the least on average at $1.17 per gallon.
Texas gas prices continue to be at their lowest since February 2016. Analysts say the downward trend should continue with crude oil trading at record low prices, even hitting unprecedented negative figures earlier this week. Supplies are very high across the country, with many storage facilities at capacity.
Refinery utilization dropped to just under 74% in the Gulf Coast region last week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). At the national level, refinery utilization sits at 68%. U.S. Gasoline demand rose slightly to 5.3 million barrels per day last week. That's up from the nearly 5.1 million barrels per day the week prior but still far-off from the nearly 9 million barrels per day just a month ago.
To offset decimated demand levels, U.S. refiners are reducing production. Three refineries have even closed: Come-by-Chance, Canada; Gallup, New Mexico; and Marathon Petroleum's Martinez, California refinery. While the reductions and closures will help, they will not balance the glut of U.S. gasoline stocks against record-low demand rates.
