It is not the joke of the madman of April; Gas prices have increased on turn.
The average price of a regular gallon in the San Diego region has increased by 21 cents in the last nine days. According to AAA, the average price amounted to $ 4.866 Tuesday – a leap of almost 5 cents compared to the day before.
Fuel analysts indicate a certain number of reasons for the increase, including tight supplies and the annual passage to the more expensive petrol mixture of California.
The petroleum price information service, which follows fuel prices across the country, said last week that the petrol inventory in California has dropped more than a million barrels compared to the previous week, one of the most important decreases of seven days in the last five years.
This is partly due to an explosion at the Martinez Refining Company in northern California on February 1 which sent plumes of smoke increase by about 200 feet and led the medical staff to take care of six workers from the refinery. The refinery is always offline, forcing supplies through the state, and should not return to full production before the fourth quarter of this year.
In addition, a major Torrance refinery recently announced reparation work to repair certain units that had slowed down or stopped.
“Things are much tightened this spring because of the absence of this capacity,” said Patrick de Haan, responsible for oil analysis in Gasbuddy. “It is as if the armor was already damaged and the arrows are now starting to penetrate.”
The increase in prices coincides with the transition that California refineries make petrol mixed in winter each year with a summer mixture. Although the single summer mixture of the State is less polluting, it adds about 15 to 20 cents at price per gallon due to oxygenates that enter the fuel.
While De Haan said: “It is certainly possible” for the essence to take the $ 5 per gallon, “it can take a few weeks to (the inventory) to start accumulating”, which has caused stabilizing prices and possibly fall to $ 4.50.
If it is a consolation, a year ago, the average price of a regular gallon in the San Diego region was $ 5.135, almost 27 cents more than the price of Tuesday.
The high gas prices in California have long been a source of drivers complaints and debates among politicians.
At the state level, the average price per Gallon on Tuesday amounted to $ 4,852 – $ 1.65 more than the American average of $ 3.201 and the highest price of all states. Hawaii was in second place, with an average of $ 4.525 Tuesday, according to AAA.
California’s excise tax on the essence of 59.6 cents The Gallon is also the highest in the country.
After the gas prices exceeded $ 6 Gallon at the end of the summer and early fall 2022 and 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom accused oil companies and refiners in the state of “lying and gouer the Californians to line their own pockets”.
At the request of Newsom, the state legislature adopted the Senate X1-2 bill which included provisions creating the division of the monitoring of the oil market to monitor the oil companies and essence of California and gave California Energy Commission to penalize the oil companies if they exceed a “margin of maximum raw refining”.
The details of what will trigger the penalty – the first of its kind in the United States – and when applied is still being developed.
Asked about the current increase in gas prices, Tai Milder, director of the oil market surveillance division, said in an email to the Union-Tribune: “We are concerned with the recent increases in high prices in the wholesale and retail markets of California and if the refiners take cautious measures to reapvavor the market.”
He added that these “who can seek swollen benefits at the expense of Californian consumers will hear us”. »»
But Michael Mische, an associate professor of the Marshall School of Business of the University of Southern California, published a study of 199 pages last month, indicating that state policies and regulations explain largely for which Californian gas prices are so high.
For example, Phillips 66 recently announced that at the end of 2025, he would close his twin installations in Carson and Wilmington which represent almost 9% of the capacity of crude oil from the state. The closure of Phillips 66 will reduce the number of refineries in California to 12.
“It is doubtful that demand decreases proportionate to the closure of the refinery (Phillips 66), and the simple economy indicates that when the supply drops more than demand, prices increase,” wrote Mische.
Fuel analysts do not expect the imminent Trump administration’s prices on Canada oil to have a lot of impact on petrol prices in California.
According to data compiled by the Energy Commission, 63.5% of oil supply sources with California refineries in 2024 came from foreign sources. From this total, the four largest countries providing the Californian market were Iraq, Brazil, Guyana and Ecuador. Canada has arrived fifth.
At the national level, oil produced in California represented 23.3% of the Golden State supply to refineries and Alaska contributed to 13.3%.
Prices would hit drivers in Midwest Plus, because it is estimated that 50% at 65% of oil that refineries use in this part of the country come from Canada.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
