Attention, holiday travelers: Gas prices return to pre-hurricane levels

Good news for those preparing to hit the road in the coming days for holiday travel: Gas prices across the Bradenton-Sarasota region as well as Florida are at their lowest levels since late August, when costs surged because of Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Gulf Coast refineries.

Even as demand ramps up for what is expected to be a record-breaking year-end travel season, more gas continues to be produced than consumed, which has led to five consecutive weeks of declines in prices.

Even better, analysts are predicting another week of price drops – the state average has been falling at a rate of 1 cent per day. If that trend continues, prices would plummet another 7 cents before Christmas Day.

On Monday, the average for a gallon of regular unleaded in the Manatee-Sarasota area was $2.35 per gallon, down from $2.39 a week earlier, according to AAA’s daily fuel tracker.

“As we approach Christmas, average gas prices in the U.S. have fallen to their lowest point in 110 days, just as Hurricane Harvey began causing prices to spike,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, which tracks fuel pricing. “In addition, the gap between prices today and a year ago is also at its narrowest in months, highlighting that prices are moving in the right direction for many.”

Though the statewide average of $2.37 is about 6 cents higher than this time a year ago, analysts predict costs likely will be in line with – or perhaps lower than – the Christmas Day 2016 average of $2.32.

With 97.4 million Americans – including 5 million Floridians – expected to travel 50 or more miles by car during the holiday travel season, according to AAA, motorists are seeing prices trend in a positive direction.

“The strong supply of gasoline should help stave off any gas price hikes that would otherwise be caused by such a surge in demand,” AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said.

GasBuddy reported Manatee County stations were averaging $2.35 per gallon to start the week, with Sarasota County at $2.37. Nearby, Hillsborough County outlets were at $2.26, with Pinellas County at $2.28.

Also, the Bradenton-Sarasota average remained below the state and national ($2.43) averages.

“Gulf Coast refineries have completely recovered from the effects of Hurricane Harvey and are now flooding the market with fuel in anticipation of strong demand during the year-end holidays,” Jenkins said.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater ($2.30), Jacksonville ($2.30) and Orlando ($2.31) areas have the state’s least-expensive aveages.

As usual, the state’s most-expensive regions are in South Florida, led by West Palm Beach-Boca Raton ($2.52), Miami ($2.50) and Naples ($2.47).

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Attention, holiday travelers: Gas prices return to pre-hurricane levels."