SLO County gas prices suddenly rising again — and one spot is charging $7.39 a gallon

Kaytlyn Leslie
·3 min read

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

After weeks of lower gas prices, the cost to fill up a car in San Luis Obispo County is once again heading back up.

On Friday, the Shell station in Shell Beach was charging a whopping $7.39 for a gallon of regular gas, with the premium option costing $7.69 per gallon.

(Notably, diesel also seems to be cheaper than regular gas at the Shell Beach station, coming in at $7.29 per gallon. That’s unusual given that diesel tends to cost more in the United States than its regular counterpart. )

According to GasBuddy, which tracks gas prices across the nation, prices here have generally trended downward since about June, when they reached a peak average of $6.56 per gallon.

Through September, however, local prices have begun to tick upward.

As of Friday, the average price per gallon of regular gas in San Luis Obispo County was $5.98 — up from $5.84 on Thursday and $5.63 the same day last week.

The good news? Though rising, Friday’s average actually means SLO County, for once, isn’t among the most expensive places for gas prices in the United States right now — in fact, it’s not even among the top 15.

According to GasBuddy, SLO County ranked No. 16 for gas prices among metro areas as of Friday, one of the lowest rankings it’s had in recent times.

The title of most expensive gas in the country instead goes to San Rafael, where drivers are paying an average of $6.57 per gallon.

Why are gas prices going up?

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said the spike in prices across the West Coast — while much of the rest of the country continues to drop — is due to refinery issues that are snarling the market.

“One of the longest gas price declines on record has finally come to an end after 14 weeks, with gas prices shooting up in several regions amidst myriad refinery issues from the West Coast to the Great Lakes and in between,” De Haan said in a GasBuddy release. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a wider gamut of price behaviors coast-to-coast in my career.”

De Haan said some areas of the West Coast, Great Lakes and Plains states could see price spikes of between 25 and 75 cents per gallon “until issues are worked out.”

Where to find cheapest gas in SLO County?

As usual, gas prices varied widely across the county on Friday, with a number of stations charging less than $6 per gallon, while some charged close to $7, according to GasBuddy.

Only the Shell Beach station and Chevron in Templeton appeared to be charging more than $7 per gallon as of Friday, according to GasBuddy. The Templeton Chevron on Las Tablas Road — routinely among the most expensive nations in the county — was charging $7.35 per gallon on Friday, according to GasBuddy.

Meanwhile, the least-expensive stations in San Luis Obispo County appear to be concentrated in the South County.

Here are the local stations charging the least for gas as of Friday afternoon, according to GasBuddy:

  • Oceano Market, 1711 Front St., Oceano: $5.39

  • Stop and Buy, 459 W. Tefft St., Nipomo: $5.49

  • San Paso Truck Stop, 81 Wellsona Road, Paso Robles: $5.49

  • Conserv Fuel, 221 Broad St., San Luis Obispo: $5.49

  • 76, 515 Orchard Road, Nipomo: $5.59

  • Vons, 550 W. Tefft St., Nipomo: $5.59