Gasoline prices in Cobb County and statewide continued to plunge, due at least in part to the stay-at-home orders, which resulted in rising stockpiles of gasoline and low demand.

“Every U.S. region is seeing builds in gasoline inventories and crude storage, which drives pump prices even cheaper,” said Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “With Americans following stay at home orders and refiners producing excess gasoline, Georgia motorists are likely to see gas prices continue to decline this week.”

Georgia drivers are now paying $1.67 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline on average. This morning’s state average is four cents less than this time last week, 34 cents less than last month, and $1.01 less than this time last year.

Cobb County gasoline prices

The average price in Cobb County is $1.739 , about seven cents more than the statewide average. 

It is always possible to find lower gas prices than the average by comparison shopping or using tools like http://gasbuddy.com.

Reasons behind the drop, according to AAA

AAA reported in its weekly news release:

Since last Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has decreased by 5 cents to $1.81. In its latest weekly report, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released new data that shows total domestic gasoline stocks grew by 4.9 million barrels last week to 262.2 million barrels, which is 34.3 million barrels more than last year’s level at this time. Meanwhile, gas demand registered at 5.1 million barrels a day for a second week.

Crude prices have fallen steadily as the global public health, financial and economic impact of COVID-19 has increased. As a result of COVID-19, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) new monthly report for April 2020 revealed that global oil demand is projected to hit a 25-year low and fall by a record 9.3 million barrels a day this year. According to IEA, global crude demand for April 2020 is expected to be 29 million barrels a day lower than April 2019 — a level unseen since 1995. 

How does AAA determine gas prices?

AAA explains it’s methodology for collecting data on gasoline prices at the pump as follows:

AAA updates fuel price averages daily at www.GasPrices.AAA.com. Every day up to 130,000 stations are surveyed based on credit card swipes and direct feeds in cooperation with the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) and Wright Express for unmatched statistical reliability. All average retail prices in this report are for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline.