By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Gas prices in Kentucky, which dropped to an average of $2.79 per gallon for regular unleaded around Christmas, are back on the rise, with the blame being placed squarely on the cold weather experienced on the Christmas weekend.
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The prices have rebounded to a statewide average of $3.01, as of Monday afternoon, according to GasBuddy.com, a crowd-sourced gas price tracking app and website. That is up a penny from Sunday, seven cents higher than a week ago, 12 cents above one month ago, and two cents per gallon more than last year.
The jump is due to previous refinery outages caused by the cold weather the week of Christmas, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
“I’m optimistic that as refiners get back online, we could see the increases slow down as we head into the time of year when gasoline demand is at its weakest,” he said. “While gasoline prices have rallied, average diesel prices continue to drift lower, which certainly bodes well for the overall economy. As long as refiners are able to get back online soon from previous cold-weather outages, we could see supply start to recover at the same time demand is weak, which could bring gas prices down again. The window of opportunity, however, is shrinking, and by late February or early March, we’ll likely kick off the seasonal rise in gasoline prices.”
The refinery shutdowns also led to a rise in crude oil inventories, since they were not being processed into gasoline and other distilled products, in the most recent Energy Information Administration report, issued last week.
