AAA: Florida gas prices reach 20-month high

Florida gas prices hit a 20-month high last week. The state average reached $2.47 on Friday - the highest daily average since August 2015. Prices declined fractions of a penny on both Saturday and Sunday, but remain 4 cents more than last week and 38 cents more than this time last year.

The most expensive metro markets are West Palm Beach/Boca Raton ($2.54), Fort Lauderdale ($2.48), and Miami $2.47).

The least expensive metro markets are Pensacola ($2.40), Tallahassee ($2.42), and Jacksonville ($2.45).

"Falling oil and wholesale gas prices should push pump prices lower this week," said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA - The Auto Club Group. "However, oil prices have been fickle this year, so motorists should expect continued volatility in the next couple of months as oil prices fluctuate, demand rises, and refineries complete the switchover to more expensive summer blends."

Motorists can find the lowest gas prices in their area by downloading the free AAA Mobile app.

Oil Prices Hit 3-week Lows

Crude oil prices declined $3 last week, settling at $49.62 on Friday - the lowest daily settlement since March 29. The decrease over last week’s settlement came amid news that Russia said it would be willing to extend its cut to crude oil production that was agreed upon with OPEC last year. However, demand continues to grow steadily, with total U.S. petroleum deliveries in March reaching their highest point for this time of the year since 2008, according to the American Petroleum Institute. OPEC, Russia and other producers agreed to cut production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) during the first half of the year. They will reconvene on May 25 to discuss the potential of extending the agreement through the second half of 2017. Analysts are pessimistic the extension will carry, based on concerns that OPEC would lose market share to the United States, whose shale oil sector has helped push domestic inventories to record levels.

Fuel Fundamentals

(Based on weekly data provided by the EIA)

Crude oil prices declined $3 last week, settling at $49.62 on Friday - the lowest daily settlement since March 29

Wholesale gasoline prices are 10 cents less than a week ago

U.S. crude inventories declined 0.10 percent to 1.2 million barrels

Domestic crude production rose 17 barrels a day to 9.3 million

Gasoline demand declined by 0.56 percent

Gasoline inventories remain slightly lower than last year, but climbed more than a half percent compared to the week before

Gasoline production rose 1.4 percent; eclipsing year-ago levels

Refineries increased capacity 4 percentage points; surpassing year-ago levels

Daily national, state, and metro gas price averages can be found at Gasprices.aaa.com. Motorists can find the lowest gas prices along their route with the free AAA Mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android. The app can also be used to map a route, find discounts, book a hotel and access AAA roadside assistance. Learn more at AAA.com/mobile.

CURRENT AND PAST PRICE AVERAGES

Regular Unleaded Gasoline

AAA updates fuel price averages daily at www.GasPrices.AAA.com. Every day up to 120,000 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.