ARIZONA NEWS
Here’s why gas prices are rising in metro Phoenix, across Arizona
Mar 29, 2023, 11:12 AM | Updated: 11:13 am
(KTAR News Photo/Taylor Tasler)
(KTAR News Photo/Taylor Tasler)
PHOENIX — Gas prices are surging in metro Phoenix and across Arizona and a fuel industry expert says there is a main reason it could stay that way for the foreseeable future.
The state is transitioning to its summer gasoline blend, which is limiting its supply at times, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Wednesday.
The result is a dollar increase for a gallon of gas in the state’s most populous metro area.
also, AZ is going through a similar situation right NOW with #gasprices surging & some outages. Why?
1) Arizona-only blend (CBG)
2) at the end of two refiner products pipelines (less capacity at the end)
when you stifle supply with localized (or statewide) regs, you get spikes! https://t.co/Ad6wbqQIC0— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) March 24, 2023
“When you’re essentially making the transition from one type of gasoline to three, it can be constrained and that’s what we’re seeing with prices going up,” De Haan said.
A gallon of gas was an average of $3.77 in Phoenix on March 1, according to GasBuddy. That jumped to $4.54 by Wednesday, $1.10 higher than the national average.
Statewide, the average has increased from $3.61 to $4.25 in March.
De Haan said the rise could continue for at least a couple more weeks.
“That is a situation that will be temporary and there are some stations that are running into the supply challenges, which also will be temporary but could last another week or two,” De Haan said.
Some other issues are plaguing Arizona’s gas situation, according to De Haan.
A shortage of truck drivers isn’t helping and a Sinclair refinery in New Mexico that the state gets supply from is set to undergo maintenance sometime in the second quarter.
Even so, De Haan doesn’t expect prices to reach marks they did in June 2022, when it was $5.70 per gallon.
“We could see prices continuing to inch up, but I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere near what we saw last year,” De Haan said.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross contributed to this report.
