Ample gasoline supplies are likely to protect motorists from Memorial Day weekend markups at the gas pump.
Although gasoline prices typically rise around Memorial Day and the onset of the summer driving season, this year’s spike to record prices came in mid- April. Since then, prices have fallen steadily.
“People should be able to take the three-day weekend trip and fill up at pretty much the prices they’re seeing now,” said petroleum analyst Mark Baxter, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.
Domestic supplies of crude oil and gasoline are at “pretty healthy levels,” Baxter said, despite an unexpected decline this week in oil inventories.
Colorado’s average price Wednesday for self-service regular was $2.15 a gallon, down 3 cents from last week and the sixth consecutive weekly decline since a record high of $2.27 on April 12.
A spot check of prices in metro Denver by AAA Colorado showed a range of $2 to $2.13 a gallon. Elsewhere among the 10 cities surveyed by AAA, the least expensive was Boulder-Longmont at an average of $2.05. The most expensive was Vail at $2.51.
Prices should remain relatively stable, Baxter said, because ample inventories of gasoline will help mitigate the prospect of production cutbacks by OPEC.
Nationally, gasoline futures surged to a two-week high after an unexpected decline in U.S. oil inventories sent crude prices above $50 a barrel.
Refineries are scaling up crude-oil processing to prepare for peak gasoline demand during the summer, analysts said, signaling that oil reserves may shrink further.
“Refiners are going to be running full bore” in coming weeks, said Seth Kleinman, market analyst with PFC Energy, a Washington, D.C., consultant. “You could see crude stocks being drawn down pretty sharply over the next few months.”
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-820-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
