Gas prices jump 10 cents in Pittsburgh region in one week

It’s that time of year when we start to see an upward trend in gas prices nationwide, and drivers in Pennsylvania are among those in 44 states paying a little more these days.

AAA said a gallon of regular unleaded is averaging $3.82 in the Pittsburgh region. That’s up three cents from Wednesday and 10 cents from one week ago. Locally, the county with the cheapest gas is Lawrence at $3.73 per gallon on average. Fayette has the highest average at $3.85.

“We’re seeing a very high demand for summer travel,” said Tiffany Stanley, AAA spokesperson. “We’re seeing demand for gas increase as well, and unfortunately, we have a lower supply,”

As we inch closer and closer to summer, AAA said drivers will be using a more expensive blend, but Stanley said there are other contributing factors to the price increase as well.

“We did see that OPEC did announce a couple of weeks ago that they’re going to cut oil production by about one million barrels per day, starting in May, so that is going to affect our supply down the road,” said Stanley.

But AAA says there were immediate impacts, driving crude oil prices to more than $80 a barrel. Other experts said it’s possible we could see gas around $4 a gallon by summer.

“It is all eyes on crude right now, we do have to keep an eye on what crude oil does because that will, of course, affect prices at the pump,” Stanley said.

The Labor Department reported a 3.5% drop in energy costs, which helped to keep headline inflation in check.

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