Gas Jumps More Than 25 Cents a Gallon in One Week

(KNSI) — The national average for the price of regular unleaded has jumped more than 25 cents a gallon in the last week.

According to Triple-A, a week ago, drivers were paying an average of $3.57 a gallon. As of Friday morning, that was up to around $3.84. The average is around $3.61 a gallon in Minnesota, with St. Cloud even lower at $3.55. Last week the statewide average was $3.44, with St. Cloud at $3.35. A year ago, the average around St. Cloud was $2.66 a gallon.

Triple-A says new data shows total domestic gasoline stocks dropped by half a million barrels to 246 million barrels. In comparison, demand has gone up slightly from 8.66 million barrels a day to 8.74 million barrels a day. Increasing demand and a reduction in supply are some of the factors leading to pain at the pump, but ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine and crude oil prices on the rise are also part of it. Russia exports around 12% of the world’s oil each day. As additional sanctions are placed on Russia, a potential ban on Russian oil imports from the U.S. and other countries could risk disrupting already tight oil supplies.

In 2016, the U.S. was almost entirely self-sufficient in total energy consumption. In 2018, the U.S. was reportedly a net oil exporter, breaking 75 years of dependence on foreign oil. Production exceeded consumption in 2019, which is one factor when considering energy independence. The government has not published data for 2020 or 2021.

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