Patrick De Haan, the company’s head of petroleum analysis, said, “as we move into the heart of summer”, he believes “we’re likely to see a relatively stable stretch for gas prices as refinery maintenance wraps up”.
“Don’t expect the national average to rise above $3.30 per gallon, nor drop much below $3 for now,” he added.
However, De Haan warned in the blog that several factors could still influence prices in the weeks ahead, “including growing uncertainty around the upcoming hurricane season”.
“We’ll also be watching OPEC+’s meeting this week to see if they boost oil production again for July as well,” De Haan said.
The blog noted that the U.S. average price of gasoline has risen, then fallen, and remains just below its week ago level at $3.13 per gallon, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 12 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.
“The national average is up 3.1 cents from a month ago and is 43.0 cents per gallon lower than a year ago,” the blog added.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest gasoline fuel update, which was released on May 28, showed that the U.S. regular gasoline price averaged $3.120 per gallon on May 12, $3.173 per gallon on May 19, and $3.160 per gallon on May 26. The May 26 price is down $0.417 compared to the year ago price, the fuel update outlined.
Of the five Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) regions highlighted in the EIA’s latest fuel update, the West Coast was shown to have the highest U.S. regular gasoline price as of May 26, at $4.258 per gallon. The Gulf Coast was shown to have the lowest U.S. regular gasoline price as of May 26, at $2.726 per gallon.
A glossary section of the EIA site notes that the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia are divided into five districts, with PADD 1 further split into three subdistricts. PADDs 6 and 7 encompass U.S. territories, the site adds.
The EIA’s latest gasoline fuel update, which pegged the regular gasoline price at $3.10 per gallon in March 2025, showed that 54 percent of that total went towards crude oil costs, 17 percent went towards taxes, 16 percent went towards distribution and marketing costs, and 14 percent went towards refining costs.
According to its latest short term energy outlook, which was released on May 6, the EIA expects the U.S. regular gasoline retail price to drop this year and next year. That STEO sees the U.S. regular gasoline retail price averaging $3.09 per gallon in 2025 and $3.07 per gallon in 2026. The EIA highlighted in the STEO that the U.S. regular gasoline retail price averaged $3.31 per gallon in 2024.
In its previous STEO, which was released back in April, the EIA projected that the U.S. regular gasoline retail price would average $3.09 per gallon in 2025 and $3.11 per gallon in 2026. That STEO also pointed out that the U.S. regular gasoline retail price averaged $3.31 per gallon last year.
According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average U.S. regular gasoline price is $3.166 per gallon, as of May 29. Yesterday’s average was $3.163 per gallon, the week ago average was $3.195 per gallon, the month ago average was $3.160 per gallon, and the year ago average was $3.574 per gallon, the site highlighted.
The highest recorded average price for regular gasoline in the U.S. was seen on June 14, 2022, at $5.016 per gallon, the AAA Fuel Prices site outlined.
