HUTCHINSON — Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas told Hutch Post that the trend from the last few weeks regarding gas prices is continuing.
"We've started to see those gas prices go up at the pumps," Steward said. "Both national and state averages have jumped a pretty good amount, up seven cents nationally and up five cents in Kansas over the past week."
Both are up 18 cents over a month ago.
"Right now, we're seeing some rise in demand for gasoline here, domestically, according to the latest reports and also supply has tightened up a bit," Steward said. "Plus, crude oil prices have gone up recently, as well. We're in the $80 a barrel range right now, approaching $80 for West Texas Intermediate Crude, after recently, we had been fluctuating in the mid 70s."
"This is generally a time when we start seeing demand rise," Steward said. "As the weather improves, we head toward spring break, as far as road trips and then we head toward summer vacation time, as well."
In addition, summer blend gasoline costs a little more to refine than the winter blend, so that has a little upward pressure on prices as the switchover happens in the mid to late spring.