The average cost of a gallon of gasoline in Denver on Sunday was $3.83, compared with the national average of $3.81, according to the gasoline price website .
Including the change in gas prices in Denver last week, prices Sunday were 20.5 cents a gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 6 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.
Although higher than the national average, the cost of a gallon of gasoline in Denver last week fell 2.8 cents from the previous week.
This compares with the national average that has fallen 3.3 cents per gallon during the week. The national average has decreased 8.6 cents a gallon during the last month and stands 10.4 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago.
Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for , said the fall in prices was not surprising.
“The national average now stands…10 cents per gallon lower than the same date a year ago, but will we hear an end to complaining about gasoline prices at the pump? Perhaps the rhetoric will wind down, but with summer around the corner, any sudden increase in price of gasoline will have America virtually calling for the heads of politicians in November,” said DeHaan.
About six weeks ago, metro Denver had the lowest gasoline prices of any major metro area.
Suncor, which accounts for about a third of the metro area’s gasoline supply, suffered a supply disruption of crude oil coming out of Canada in late March.
And Front Range stations also are switching over to a fuel blend designed to reduce emissions in the summer months, which adds costs, especially compared with states that don’t have similar requirements, said Mark Larson, executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association.
GasBuddy operates and more than 250 similar websites that track gasoline prices at more than 140,000 gasoline stations in the United States and Canada.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com or twitter@HowardPankratz
