Gasoline prices held up well in Hurricane Florence, according to new federal data

PPump prices remained virtually unchanged two weeks after Hurricane Florence hit the Carolinas earlier this month, although prices remained more than 25 cents above the same period last year.

The Ministry of Energy has shown in its most recent weekly fuel price analysis that the average retail price of gasoline has increased by less than a cent to remain unchanged from the previous week, at 2.84 dollars a gallon. days earlier.

East Coast prices were a bit of an anomaly last week, falling 2 cents to $ 2.77, according to the Energy Week Oil Week report released Wednesday.

One of the reasons for price stability can be attributed to the Colonial pipeline, the largest gas carrier on the Gulf Coast in New York, operating at full speed in the storm, according to the company.

"Colonial thanks its clients, government agencies and emergency management for their communications and cooperation during Hurricane Florence," he said in his recent update on the response to the crisis. Hurricane Florence. "With this effective coordination, deliveries of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to affected communities continued during the hurricane."

The absence of price fluctuations coincided with what oil industry experts had predicted while Florence was hitting the southeast.

"I think it will have less impact on the oil and gas industry than Harvey, simply because the refinery complex is on the Gulf Coast," said Dan Eberhart, CEO of the service company Canary tankers. , say it Washington Examiner the day the storm hit.

On September 19, five days after Florence's arrival, the agency reported that the average price of gasoline in the United States had increased by almost one cent from the previous week, to $ 2.84. the gallon.

On September 12, two days before the storm, the average price of gasoline had risen nearly one cent from the previous week to reach $ 2.83 a gallon.

A year ago, when Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast in late August, the average price of gasoline jumped four cents.

Nevertheless, this year's gasoline lump sum price is still more than 25 cents higher than it was a year ago when Harvey beat the Gulf Coast.

The average price of diesel fuel rose by less than one cent from last week, remaining virtually unchanged at $ 3.27 a gallon. But, like gasoline, the price is nearly 50 cents higher than a year ago.

Fuel prices in the country began to rise in early 2017, when crude oil production was well below current levels and the price of oil began to rise.