U.S. Retail Gasoline Falls to $2.7153 on Declining Demand, Lundberg Says

The average price of regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations fell to $2.7153 as demand for the motor fuel declined.

Gasoline lost 11.26 cents in the three weeks ended June 11, according to a survey of 2,500 filling stations nationwide by Trilby Lundberg, an independent gasoline analyst in Camarillo, California, who added that prices have fallen 20.51 cents over the past five weeks.

Gasoline supply has reached a “glut,” she said. “Demand is falling due to continued underemployment while supply is up as refiners have increased their refinery utilization.”

U.S. gasoline demand at the pump slumped 5.8 percent in the week ended June 4 as motorists drove fewer miles over the Memorial Day weekend, MasterCard Inc. said on June 8 in its SpendingPulse report. Motorists bought an average 9.146 million barrels of motor fuel a day, the lowest level since the week ended Feb. 12.

Averaged over the past four weeks, gasoline demand, as measured by what refiners and blenders supply to wholesalers, was down 1 percent from a year earlier, the Energy Department said June 9.

Stockpiles of gasoline were steady at 219 million barrels in the week ended June 4, according to the department. Inventories were 8.6 percent above a year earlier.

Market Oversupply

Refiners “have to seek operational efficiency” and maintain sales, Lundberg said. “There has been enough oversupply to kick prices down.”

The front-month contract for crude oil gained 5.3 percent in the three weeks ended June 11. Gasoline futures rose 4.5 percent.

Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, fell 0.01 cent to $2.701 a gallon, AAA said on its website.

On Long Island, regular gasoline averaged $2.92 a gallon, Lundberg said. Los Angeles-area retail stations averaged $3.02 a gallon.

Of the cities surveyed by Lundberg on June 11, the highest price was San Francisco at $3.10 a gallon. The cheapest place to buy gasoline was Jackson, Mississippi, where a gallon averaged $2.43, she said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Barbara Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net; Paul Burkhardt in New York at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net.

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