Oil prices have moved above the 40 dollars a barrel mark. Gas prices have followed suit, but are still well off last summer's levels, thanks to the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the New Orleans area, gas prices are roughly 20 cents a gallon above where they were last month, but still about 50 cents less than last year headed into the Fourth of July.
AAA spokesman Don Redman says that's likely to continue all summer.
"We're expecting, unless there's any kind of major disruption, and we are in hurricane season, so it could happen, but barring anything like that, we expect the prices to remain under two dollars a gallon for the remainder of the summer," said Redman.
Travel is, of course, way off from the previous year, Redman said. AAA didn't even do a Fourth of July travel survey, although they did do a more broad "summer travel" survey. Redman says it's off about 15 percent overall, but among people who are traveling, a much higher percentage will be going by car, with other modes taking a big hit.
"We're talking about air travel being off about 77 percent from where we were a year ago. Other modes of transportation, principally cruises and trains, they're going to be down almost 87 percent."
Today in New Orleans, the average price for a gallon of 87 octane is $1.817, according to AAA. It's about 20 cents higher than last week's $1.615, and more than 50 cents lower than last year's $2.354.