PHOENIX — Look, we don't need to mince words. Gas prices in the Phoenix Metro are rough right now.
As of Friday, the average gas prices in Maricopa and Pinal counties are almost a dollar over the national average, according to AAA's gas price monitor. In Maricopa County, expect to see prices to the tune of $4.36 per gallon — give or take some cents.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: ¿Por qué los precios de la gasolina en Arizona son tan altos?
Gas prices aren't regulated in Arizona, which means that companies are free to set high prices. Inevitably, we all start looking at the usual suspects; the dreaded "summer blend," inflation, etc. This time, the culprit is tourism, war and California.
Let's start local. Arizona doesn't have any oil refineries of its own, so almost all of the state's gasoline comes from our neighbors, California and Texas. The Phoenix Metro is supplied by refineries in California's Bay Area and it takes about seven days for a shipment of gasoline to arrive from there.
Right now, some of those refineries are closed for upkeep.
"There's three refineries in California that have gone down for maintenance, so that will affect the entire region," AAA spokesman Julian Paredes explained. "You know, that was actually a big problem last year, and this is kind of a little bit of a repeat."
Since refineries don't advertise their closures, this issue often slips past public notice. Paredes suspects that the closures will only last a few weeks and hopes they'll reopen by Memorial Day.
Tucson and eastern Arizona, being supplied by Texas, aren't struggling as hard. But all of Arizona is dealing with increased tourism. We get a lot of visitors during our narrow window of spring. More visitors, more drivers, more demand for gas, and the invisible hand of the market pushes up the price.
The escalation of wars in Ukraine and Israel has also fed into recent price increases. OPEC and allied oil producers like Russia recently announced that they are deepening their voluntary crude supply cuts, the Associated Press reported. Combined, the cuts amount to roughly 2.2 million fewer barrels of oil being produced per day.
So what's up with the summer blend? It's a bit of a misnomer, and it's not what caused the current price jump — we've been using it for over a month now, and it's definitely not summer yet.
"[The switch] already happened," Paredes said. "So there was a little bit of a jump in gas prices in March-ish. That's because that gas, the summer blend of gasoline, adds maybe 10 to 15 cents per gallon."
Gasoline evaporates much faster than other liquids and is more susceptible to hot temperatures. As a result, refineries start mixing in additives to slow the evaporation rate, which also increases costs.
The federal mandate to start using this blend is in June, Paredes said, but Arizona starts sooner and switches over county by county as the state warms up.
It's a cold comfort, but gas prices in Phoenix are roughly 40 cents lower than they were at this time last year according to GasBuddy's price tracker. Even if we can't control the price at the pump, Paredes recommends two things to get the most out of your gas:
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated and in good condition
- Get your car fully serviced to make sure it's running efficiently
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