According to a press release from Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman for AAA – The Auto Club Group, Georgia prices at the pump have made another five-cent jump over the past week, to $2.33 per gallon for regular unleaded as of this morning.

“Georgians can expect to continue paying more to fill up at the pump this month, contingent on how high crude goes,” said Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman for AAA – The Auto Club Group in her weekly press release. “If demand grows, that will further fuel pump price increases.”

Why are prices rising?

The weekly press release from AAA went into further detail on the rise in prices, and stated as follows:

Since Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by 4 cents to $2.50. Increasing pump prices have been supported by higher crude oil prices and gas demand, which grew slightly last week from 7.78 million barrels a day to 7.86 million barrels a day, according to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Pump prices continue to rise despite the overall sustained lower demand numbers and EIA’s latest report showing that total domestic gas stocks grew by 4.3 million barrels to 256.4 million barrels. Based on current trends, drivers will likely see pump prices continue to increase ahead of spring.

At the close of last Thursday’s formal trading session, WTI decreased by 44 cents to settle at $58.24. Although market concern regarding crude demand pushed prices lower today, crude prices have increased this week, reaching the highest daily settlement price since January 2020 on Wednesday at $58.68. The price increase occurred after EIA’s weekly report revealed that total domestic crude inventories decreased by 6.6 million barrels to 469 million barrels, while total refinery crude utilization increased slightly from 82.3% to 83% last week.  Crude and pump prices are likely to continue to move higher as crude inventories continue to drop and utilization increases.

Cobb County gasoline prices

The average price in Cobb County is $2.315, about a penny less 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.

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.