Cold fuels gas price surge
Feb. 25—The winter storm that paralyzed much of Texas last week brought the biggest leap gas prices since Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast in 2017.
The national average price of gasoline has risen for the seventh consecutive week rising 10.4 cents per gallon over the last week to $2.63 today according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.
The low prices in Athens, at both the Brookshire's and Murphy USA on East Tyler Street stood at $2.24. Two weeks ago, they were each charging $2.12.
"With last week's extreme cold shutting down millions of barrels per day in refinery capacity, gas prices have seen their largest weekly climb in quite some time," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy said. "The jump in price was the result of a dozen or so refineries, primarily in Texas, that were forced to shut down as the frigid temperatures threatened to wreak havoc on their exposed equipment."
De Haan said as spring weather nears refineries will start to transition to summer gasoline. That will likely bring more price increases.
Prices at other gas stations in Henderson county are also on the incline.
The CEFCO on South Prairieville Street was charging $2.39, while the Exxon on South Prairieville and and Shell Station on East Tyler posted $2.45.
The Shell in Mabank was showing one of the lowest prices, with $2.23. The CEFCO on Gun Barrel Lane in Gun Barrel City was charging $2.39. Further east, south of Brownsboro a price of $2.49 was posted at the Chevron at the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 317 and FM 607.
