Gas prices are the highest they've been in seven years. Demand is up, domestic supply was hit by a hurricane - and then there's overseas production.
Grace Cary/Getty Images
Americans are once again feeling pain at the gas pump, and it's because of a classic clash between rising demand and constrained supply.
A report from AAA found that gas prices across the US hit an average of $3.22 on Wednesday, higher than they've been at any point since 2014. That's consistent with data from the US Energy Information Administration, which found gas prices rising throughout 2021, hitting levels not seen since the middle of the last decade:
The reasons for the price spike are textbook supply and demand from an economics textbook: Americans have gotten back to driving more this summer as the pandemic has moderated, and a combination of domestic supply interruptions and trouble in energy markets overseas have made crude oil more expensive.
As with so many other aspects of everyday life, the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed how Americans travel. Lockdowns and the uncontrolled early spread of the virus led to canceled travel and a sharp reduction in commutes.
By summer 2021, however, Americans were back on the road. The number of vehicle miles traveled measured by the Federal Highway Administration plummeted in spring 2020, but in July 2021, the most recent month for which data is available, highway traffic was back up to what would normally be seen in midsummer:
That increase in the amount of driving Americans are doing also means an increase in demand for fuel for cars.
In addition to that ramp-up in demand, there have been some big supply constraints as well.
The Energy Information Administration noted in mid-September that Hurricane Ida shut down a large swath of the US's oil drilling and refining capacity in the Gulf of Mexico in late August.
While rigs and refineries have quickly come back online since, crude oil inventories remain low, suggesting an ongoing lack of supply. EIA wrote that as of late September, oil stored at Cushing, Oklahoma, one of the main crude depots in the US, was down 40% from the start of the year.
Other EIA data shows that crude oil inventories across the country remain subdued:
A crunch in domestic oil supply and stockpiles coupled with a rise in demand leads to higher gas prices.
In addition to domestic oil supply slowing down, oil and energy markets overseas also aren't helping matters on the supply front.
On Monday, OPEC and other major oil-exporting countries agreed to only a modest increase in production, despite oil consumers like the US and India pushing for higher exports, according to CNBC. That lack of relief on oil supply sent crude prices higher.
It also shows how the cartel of oil exporters still holds a huge amount of power in global oil markets, even as the US has vastly increased production over the last decade and countries around the world begin the process of moving toward greener energy sources.
Broader energy markets have been facing supply shortages as well. European natural gas and electricity prices have skyrocketed in recent weeks, and traders expect higher oil and other energy prices for months to come.
Put together surging demand from the US reopening with supply crunches both domestic and global, and it should be no surprise that gas prices are spiking.
