Hovensa raised the rack price six cents per gallon for regular gasoline and seven cents per gallon for premium this week, bringing wholesale prices to $3.17 and $3.40 per gallon, respectively, moving slightly in the opposite direction from nationwide trends.
This is the third week Hovensa prices have increased after a sharp decrease four weeks ago. For the week of June 13-19, Hovensa raised the price of premium by nine cents, while holding steady on the price of regular. The week before, Hovensa raised the regular price a nickel and premium by four cents per gallon. The week before that, Hovensa dropped the price 12 cents for regular and 16 cents for premium.
The local pattern continues to be a little out of sync with national trends.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, regular-grade retail gasoline prices nationwide rose slightly in the first two weeks of May, as refinery outages and distribution disruptions from Mississippi River flooding temporarily outweighed the impact of lower crude oil prices. By the end of May, national prices had dropped to similar levels as at the end of April, with an average May price of $3.91 per gallon of regular. Since then, regular retail prices in the U.S. have dropped a little over a nickel each week, standing at $3.65 as of Monday. The retail price is higher than the rack rate charged by suppliers to retailers, but the two metrics vary together and are affected by the same trends.
So Hovensa’s rack rate dropped dramatically early in May, when nationwide prices rose slightly and the rack rate has continued to rise slightly over several weeks as nationwide retail averages fell by similar amounts.
