The national average of gasoline has reached $5 per gallon for the first time ever.

Average gasoline prices in Mississippi have risen 28.2 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $4.43/g today, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 2,014 stations in Mississippi. Prices in Mississippi are 54.0 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand $1.75/g higher than a year ago. The price of diesel has risen 11.5 cents nationally in the past week and stands at $5.62 per gallon.
Brookhaven’s prices ranged from $4.34 to $4.59 per gallon Thursday morning.
The national average price of gasoline has risen 41 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $5 per gallon Thursday morning — an increase of 15 cents in one day. The national average is up 71 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands $1.96/g higher than a year ago, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million weekly price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.
“It’s been one in after another this year, and worst of all, demand doesn’t seem to be responding to the surge in gas prices, meaning there is a high probability that prices could go even higher in the weeks ahead,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

De Haan cautioned for weeks that the $5 national average was likely to come soon, and he was proven right.

“It’s a perfect storm of factors all aligning to create a rare environment of rapid price hikes. The situation could become even worse should there be any unexpected issues at the nation’s refineries or a major hurricane that impacts oil production or refineries this summer.”
GasBuddy is the authoritative voice for gas prices and the only source for station-level data spanning nearly two decades. Unlike AAA’s once daily survey and the Lundberg Survey, updated once every two weeks based on a small fraction of U.S. gasoline stations, GasBuddy’s survey updates 288 times every day from the most diverse list of sources covering nearly 150,000 stations nationwide, the most comprehensive and up-to-date in the country. GasBuddy data is accessible at http://prices.GasBuddy.com.