by John Keller | Feb 8, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Fuel prices increased again, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline rose 3 cents to $3.13/gallon, a gallon of midgrade rose 3 cents to $3.25, and a gallon of premium rose 3 cents to $3.37. The previous week showed a one cent decrease, but prices have risen 7 of the past 8 weeks.
Once again the largest fuel price increases were in the Rocky Mountain region, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose five cents to $2.98/gallon. That region still has the lowest fuel prices in the country, one of only two regions where unleaded remains below $3.00/gallon. The other region below $3.00/gallon is the Gulf Coast, where the average price of unleaded is the lowest in the country at $2.97.
As for individual states, Minnesota had the only fuel price decrease of the week, where prices dropped by $.01/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $3.13/gallon. California again has the highest fuel prices in the country where the average price for a gallon of unleaded is $3.39, up three cents from last week.
Chicago was hit with the highest fuel price increase in the country, where the price of unleaded rose seven cents to $3.31/gallon. Los Angelese and San Francisco were the only two cities with prices above $3.40/gallon, both reporting an average price of unleaded at $3.41/gallon.
by John Keller | Feb 1, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Valero Energy Corporation announced in their financial results for 2010 that US retail fuel margins for the year were $.140 per gallon, higher than 2009 by $.014. Retail fuel margins for Q4 were at $.086 per gallon, lower by $.026 per gallon than last year’s Q4.
Across their 990 company-operated sites in the US, Valero sold 154,699 gallons per store per month, less than 2009 by just 3132 gallons per month.
Valero is one of the largest retail operators with approximately 5,800 retail and branded wholesale outlets in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under the Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar and Beacon brands. Based in San Antonio, Valero is a Fortune 500 company with approximately 20,000 employees.
Read the entire financial report here.
by John Keller | Jan 26, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Fuel prices rose again for the eighth straight week, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline rose 1 cent to $3.11/gallon, while a gallon of midgrade remained the same at $3.22, and a gallon of premium rose one cent to $3.35.
The largest fuel price increases were in the Rocky Mountain region, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose two cents to $2.91/gallon. That region still has the lowest fuel prices in the country, one of only two regions where unleaded remains below $3.00/gallon. The other region below $3.00/gallon is the Gulf Coast, where the average price of unleaded is $2.96.
As for individual states, Minnesota had the largest fuel price increase of the week at $.07/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $3.16/gallon. Ohio led the states with the largest unleaded fuel price decrease, dropping four cents to $3.06/gallon. Texas was the only other state with a reported price decrease, where unleaded fuel dropped a penny to $2.95/gallon. California again has the highest fuel prices in the country where the average price for a gallon of unleaded is $3.35, up one cent from last week. New York state remains the second highest priced, where a gallon of unleaded is up a penny to $3.34/gallon.
Chicago reported the only local fuel price decrease in the country, where the price of unleaded dropped two cents to $3.22/gallon. Denver had the largest increase of any city in the country, where the price of unleaded rose four cents to $2.94/gallon.
by John Keller | Jan 19, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Fuel prices rose again for the sixth straight week, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The US national average fuel price of unleaded gasoline rose a penny to $3.08/gallon, while a gallon of midgrade rose two cents to $3.20, and a gallon of premium rose two cents to $3.33.
The largest fuel price increases were on the West Coast, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose three cents to $3.26/gallon. The Lower Atlantic states also rose $.03/gallon to $3.05 for a gallon of unleaded.
As for individual states, Minnesota was hit with a $.06/gallon weekly increase for unleaded, with an average price of $3.09/gallon. Colorado continues to have the lowest average fuel prices in the US where a gallon of unleaded is $2.86, up three cents from last week. California again has the highest fuel prices in the country where the average price for a gallon of unleaded is $3.33, up three cents from last week. New York state has the second highest prices in the nation, where a gallon of unleaded is $3.30/gallon, up a penny from last week.
by John Keller | Jan 19, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Fuel prices rose again for the seventh straight week, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline rose 1.5 cents to $3.10/gallon, while a gallon of midgrade rose two cents to $3.22, and a gallon of premium rose one cent to $3.34.
The largest fuel price increases were in the Rocky Mountain region, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose three cents to $2.89/gallon. That region still has the lowest fuel prices in the country, one of only two regions where unleaded remains below $3.00/gallon. The other region below $3.00/gallon is the Gulf Coast, where the average price of unleaded is $2.95.
As for individual states, Colorado had the largest fuel price increase of the week at $.06/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $2.92/gallon. That’s still the lowest price for unleaded of any state. California again has the highest fuel prices in the country where the average price for a gallon of unleaded is $3.34, up one cent from last week. New York state remains the second highest priced, where a gallon of unleaded is up three cents to $3.33/gallon.
Chicago reported the only local fuel price decrease in the country, where the price of unleaded dropped three cents from $3.31/gallon to $3.28/gallon.
by John Keller | Dec 22, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
Fuel prices trend downward from Labor Day to December. Or so has been the consistant pattern according to the US Energy Information Administration who has tracked retail fuel prices since 1990.
But in 2010, fuel prices reversed this pattern, rising $.30/gallon from Labor Day to mid-December. As a comparison, over the 2004 through 2007 period and in 2009 (2008 is excluded due to the rapid run-up and subsequent crash in crude oil prices over the course of that year), the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell an average of 22 cents between Labor Day and the middle of December.
The $2.98 per gallon national average price of regular gasoline on December 22, 2010 is the second highest on US EIA record for the third week of December, surpassed only by 2007 when the average price reached $3.00 per gallon.
The US EIA explains this unusual phenomenon on several factors:
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- Strengthening demand combined with a tightening U.S. supply picture (particularly on the East Coast)
- In October and November, a planned outage at Irving Oil’s St. John refinery in Canada, a major supplier of gasoline to the United States, coupled with port and refinery strikes in France, limited the amount of gasoline available for import.
- In late August, gasoline inventories on the East Coast were in excess of their five-year average by over 11 million barrels; however, by the end of November, that excess inventory had been completely eroded, with inventory levels almost 3 million barrels under the five-year average.
- Crude oil prices have continued to rise as the market has become more confident that strong global oil demand growth will continue into 2011.
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