Gas Price Increase In Atlanta Due To Low Supply, High Demand
In metro Atlanta, gas prices have increased this week to an average of $2.77 in the area. This Chevron gas station in Lilburn is on the lower end of gas prices in the area. It costs $2.69 if you pay with cash and $2.74 with credit or debit card.
Tasnim Shamma / WABE
Atlanta area drivers are paying more at the pump this summer. At a Chevron Station in Lilburn, where gas is $2.74 per gallon for credit card purchases, there’s a range of reactions.
“It’s entirely too high right now to tell you the truth. It’d take me about $40 to fill up my gas tank when it used to take me about $30,” said Kevin Bell, a motorist from Stone Mountain. “Now I got to spend $100 a week, it’s basically another bill. I don’t joyride, I limit the places that I go. I just cut out all the extra driving.”
Temple Karl of Lilburn, however, said she hasn’t been upset about the price increases as a recent transplant from California.
“Gas prices in California were well over four dollars and something a gallon, so what we’re paying here is a whole lot better,” Karl said.
Price Range
Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com, said the average gas price nationwide has been on the rise, but in the Atlanta area, it is an average of $2.77.
He said the range of prices in the Atlanta market is surprising.
“Even as gas prices have remained fairly high compared to a year ago, there’s a remarkable spread,” DeHaan said. “In Atlanta, some stations are charging as little as $2.51 a gallon whereas some stations in downtown Atlanta continue to charge well over $3.00 a gallon, with over two dozen stations at $3.09 or higher.”
Shaahriar Ahmad Shiblee works at the Chevron station in Lilburn. He said the cost at his station has been around the same price for the last couple of weeks, but it’s been a lot higher at nearby stations.
Strong Demand
The average price of gas in the Atlanta area is about $0.55 a gallon more than this time last summer. One reason is higher demand.
“The last month that data was available from the Department of Transportation showed that the amount of vehicle miles traveled at the highest ever level for the month of May meaning Americans are driving more miles,” DeHaan said.
But the cost is not high enough to make people switch to more fuel-efficient cars en masse just yet.
“We haven’t seen gas prices breach key psychological barriers,” DeHaan said.
Low Supply
But it’s not only high demand, a strong economy and low unemployment keeping prices high. Mercer University assistant professor of economics Antonio Saravia said a series of global events is also keeping oil production and supply levels low.
“The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has been on a 17-month campaign to reduce supply because they want to increase prices and this movement has been led by Saudi Arabia and Russia.”
On top of that, political instability in Libya and Venezuela and recent U.S. actions of pulling out of a nuclear deal in Iran means there is less oil available.
However in the U.S., production at oil refineries and fracking techniques are helping moderate the price.
The cost at the pump in metro Atlanta is about 10 cents below the national average of $2.86.
Saravia said prices are expected to increase this summer, but only moderately.
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