As delta variant surges, Florida gas prices drop again — a trend likely to continue

Photo by Blake Dowling.

A penny: that’s how much cheaper gasoline is this week in Florida compared to last week.

Florida gas prices notched one cent lower last week to a statewide average of $3.01 per gallon, AAA — The Auto Club Group reported Monday morning.

“Continued concerns about the spread of COVID-19 prevented gas prices from gaining any ground last week,” AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins stated in a news release. “Crude oil and gasoline futures prices have fallen under downward pressure due to worries about how the delta variant could reduce global fuel demand. The lower futures prices should enable gas prices to trend lower in the coming week.”

Nationally, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $3.18.

Last week, the price for U.S. crude oil bounced between $66 and $70 per barrel before finishing the week flat at $68.44, AAA reported. Gasoline futures mostly did the same. Even still, futures prices remain 7% less than where they finished two weeks ago.

Still, AAA forecast Monday that gas prices will remain well above what drivers paid this time last year and in 2019, when pump prices followed more traditional trends. Florida gas prices averaged $2.10 per gallon in August 2020 and $2.45 per gallon in August 2019.

“The long-term future of pump prices is hard to predict due to the pandemic’s effect on global supply and demand,” Jenkins added. “Traditionally, gas prices rise in the spring, fluctuate in the summer, and fall in the fall and winter months. However, this has been anything but a traditional year.”

The cheapest gas prices in Florida again were found in Punta Gorda, where drivers paid an average of $2.95 per gallon. In Orlando, Jacksonville, and Fort Myers-Cape Coral, drivers saw prices averaging $2.97; $2.98 in Tampa/St. Petersburg.

Drivers in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton market were paying an average of $3.16 per gallon. In Panama City, gas cost an average of $3.12; Tallahassee, $3.08; Fort Lauderdale, $3.04; Pensacola, $3.03; and Miami, $3.02.