Summer gasoline prices could be influenced by the degree of refinery maintenance in April. Some analysts are projecting refinery maintenance to be much larger than in recent years which could require significant draws from inventory to meet demand. While Midwest inventories are considerably above the normal range, national inventories are only about one million barrels above the normal range.
For the week of April 3, Nebraska's average gasoline price had increased seven cents per gallon to $2.60 from the previous week, which was 39 cents higher than the price at this time last year. Weekly average prices in surveyed cities ranged from $2.56 in Columbus to $2.66 in Kearney. As of March 31, the Midwest gasoline stock level was above the normal range with 54.2 million barrels.
Nebraska's average diesel price had risen five cents to $2.65 per gallon. According to the weekly price report, this week's state average was 37 cents higher than the price at this time last year. Weekly averages in the surveyed cities ranged from $2.60 in Columbus to $2.69 in Kearney. On the supply side, the Midwest distillate fuel inventory level was above the normal range with 23.8 million barrels of diesel fuel as of March 31.
Regular unleaded gasoline is regular unleaded motor gasoline with an 87 to 88 octane. Diesel fuel is fuel used for internal combustion in diesel engines.
An archive of this report and historical weekly prices are available.
