Merced gas prices higher than national average

Merced County gasoline prices remain sandwiched between the national and state averages, while state refineries keep California’s prices higher than the national average, experts say.

The average retail price of gas in the Merced area was $2.71 on Wednesday, according to the 22 stations tracked by GasBuddy.com, a national gas price-tracking website. Los Banos’ average was slightly lower at $2.55.

But Merced did offer four stations with $2.39-a-gallon gas – the Arco stations on G Street and McSwain Road, Shop N Go on Beachwood Drive and Costco on R Street, though that last station requires a membership.

Pumping gas Wednesday at the Arco on G Street and Olive Avenue was Keith Wilson, 70, of Merced. That station is in his neighborhood, he said, and a recent road trip has given him a new appreciation for fluctuations in gas prices.

“I’ve just driven across the country,” he said Wednesday. “We were in Florida for Christmas.”

At a national average of $2 a gallon, many people from other parts of the country see cheaper prices than Californians. Wilson said he spotted gas for $1.67 somewhere in Louisiana.

On Merced County’s west side, Los Banos’ cheapest gas ($2.41) was at the Circle K on Mercey Springs Road. The three stations tracked by GasBuddy in Dos Palos all offered $2.33 for fuel, the cheapest average in the county. At the other end of the price spectrum was Gustine, which has a $3.07 average for the five stations.

Back in Merced, Akshat Sharma, who has owned Merced Fuel and Food on Olive and Park avenues for about two years, said the switch over to winter fuels around the holidays always pushes the price up, but he works to stay competitive with the Valero around the corner.

Both his station and the Valero posted fuel prices of $2.49 on Wednesday. He said compared with other parts of the year, prices are coming down. Summertime fuel costs were well over $3 a gallon, GasBuddy numbers show.

“Prices are going down, which is really good,” the 32-year-old said.

Things are worse in Southern California. GasBuddy said the average retail price of gas in the Los Angeles area on Monday was $3.05 a gallon, which has helped push the statewide average to $2.85 a gallon.

The national average continues to fall amid plentiful supplies and low crude oil prices. On Wednesday, the average retail price of gas was $2 a gallon, down from $2.04 last month and $2.27 a year ago.

Allison Mac, a Los Angeles-based petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said the recent spikes were tied to a flurry of breakdowns and “maintenance issues” at multiple Golden State refineries that produce the specific blend of gas required in California.

“It’s an ongoing headache,” Mac said. “Another problem is a lack of gasoline imports. Up until recently, supplies were good and prices were low, so (California) was not importing gasoline. Now, with the refinery problems, it has become a supply-and-demand issue.”

Mac said the list of ongoing refinery disruptions includes a Chevron facility in El Segundo and Tesoro facilities in Martinez, Carson and Wilmington. She also noted that the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance remains crippled by an explosion there in February.

Mac noted that repair and maintenance work at the affected refineries will continue into early January, so California gasoline prices could continue to rise “for another week or so.”

GasBuddy analysts said California’s problems have kept the national average price of gas from falling even lower.

“(Thirty-eight) states lowering gas prices wasn’t enough to move the national average significantly, a testament to the severity of California’s gas price hike,” said Will Speer, a Houston-based analyst for GasBuddy. “As the refining issues impacting California aren’t expected to be resolved this week, California will continue to inflate the national gas price average into the new year.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Merced gas prices higher than national average."