Georgia gasoline prices dipped slightly over the past week.

According to the weekly press release from Montrae Waiters the spokeswoman for AAA – The Auto Club Group, Georgia drivers are now paying an average of $3.22 per gallon for regular unleaded, a drop of two cents from this time last week.

“Crude oil prices fell slightly, which points to Georgians seeing some relief at the pumps across the state. The price of oil accounts for about 50%–60% of what consumers pay at the pump, so a lower oil price usually translates into better gasoline prices for drivers,” said Waiters.

Prices in Cobb County

The price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Cobb County is $3.239 at the time of this writing, about 2 cents more expensive 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.

What are the national trends?

AAA’s weekly report stated the following about national gas and oil trends:

Since last Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has decreased by a penny to $3.39. According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), total domestic gasoline stocks declined slightly by 600,000 barrels to 211.4 million barrels last week. On the other hand, gasoline demand increased from 9.24 million barrels a day to 9.33 million barrels a day. Typically, growing demand and tight supply would support rising pump prices, but recent fluctuations in the price of crude oil have helped to stabilize and put downward pressure on prices. However, as long as the price of oil is near $80 per barrel, drivers should expect pump prices to remain elevated.

President Biden announced that the federal government will make available up to 32 million barrels of oil held in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and accelerate the timeline for a sale of an additional 18 million barrels of SPR oil, as mandated by Congress. However, how much of a price impact and how long the price relief will last depend on the total amount of oil that moves into the market after the coordinated releases around the globe. As a result, drivers could see some price relief at the pump over the coming weeks, but they should expect prices to remain higher than last year’s holiday season and in 2019.

How does AAA determine gas prices?

According to AAA:

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.