Pump prices up for the first time in three months, says AAA Kansas

Pump prices are rising across the Great Lakes and Central states including here in Kansas.

“For the first time in the past three months, both the national and Kansas gas prices rose a little bit,” said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas. “This week in Kansas, we’re at $1.97 on average, which is up about 3 cents from a week ago. The national price went up 1 cent in the past week.”

There are a few more people driving, but that’s not all that’s moving the price.

“We did see a small increase in gasoline demand across the country,” said Steward. “That impacted the prices, but we’ve also seen a steady increase in crude oil prices since the start of the year. That’s starting to push up pump prices slightly.”

Total stocks sit at 57 million barrels. That’s a 4 million barrel year-over-year surplus in the region.

“This is usually a time when we do see low prices at the gas pumps just because demand is usually fairly low after the holidays,” said Steward. “There are just fewer people driving during the wintertime.”

Kansas has the 9th cheapest average gas price in the country.