West Central Kentucky prices have increased by four cents to $2.595 per gallon this week according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.
With this week’s increases, gas price averages in the region are as much as 35-cents more expensive than this time last year (Kentucky, +33 cents). Gasoline inventories remain above 57 million barrels, with the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reporting an 800,000 barrel decline on the week.
Western Central Kentucky Average
$2.595
Average price during the week of April 16, 2018
$2.552
Average price during the week of April 24, 2017
$2.267
Average prices of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:
$2.541 Bowling Green
$2.566 Elizabethtown
$2.801 Louisville
$2.543 Owensboro
$2.522 Paducah
On the National Front
The EIA’s latest data registers consumer gasoline demand at 9.857 million b/d. That is the highest level ever on record for the month of April and exceeds typical
summer demand measurements. As demand skyrockets, gas prices increased across the country on the week with five states seeing double-digit jumps. The national
average ticked up a nickel to $2.76, and is 17-cents more expensive than last month and 34-cents more expensive than last year at this time.
At the close of Friday’s formal trading session on the NYMEX, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) increased nine cents to settle at $68.38, which is the second highest close for WTI since Dec. 1, 2014.
There was a jump in price-per-barrel last week after Wednesday’s EIA weekly report revealed that crude inventories across the U.S. dropped by a combined 1.1 million barrels. They now sit at 427.6 million – nearly 105 million lower than in mid-April 2017. If EIA’s report this week reveals another inventory draw, crude prices are likely to continue climbing.
Motorists can find current gas prices nationwide, statewide, and countywide at GasPrices.AAA.com.