Fuel Price Brief for the Week of March 20

FUEL PRICE BRIEF CONTACT:  For your local media contact visit www.AAA.com/Media Jessica Brady, manager, AAA Public Relations, office: (813) 288-7294; cell: (813) 532-5327, JBrady@AAASouth.com

PRICE OF CRUDE REMAINS RELATIVELY UNCHANGED FROM LAST WEEK

TAMPA, Fla. (March 20, 2011) - The price of crude oil barely moved from last week, reporting only a 5-cent decrease. Crude oil settled Friday at $101.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. News that Moammar Gadhafi ordered his regime to cease fire on the rebels and would try to resolve the dispute helped keep oil prices at bay.

Despite his announcement, concerns still linger as protests continue and unrest remains in many parts of the Mideast, such as Bahrain, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, as well as Libya. Japan is still expected to see a significant drop in the country’s demand after the earthquake shook the world’s third-largest oil consuming country.

"This is the first week in more than a month that retail gas prices show a decrease," said Jessica Brady, spokesperson, AAA Auto Club South. "Although the national average only dropped a cent, some state averages are showing price drops between two and four cents. It’s uncertain whether prices will continue to drop this week since there is still much turmoil in the Mideast that could push oil prices higher. And when Japan begins to rebuild its country, their demand for oil will increase substantially."     

The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline is $3.54 per gallon, once-cent less than last week. Florida’s average price of $3.56 and Tennessee’s average price of $3.40 both decreased 2 cents from last week. While Georgia’s average price of $3.45 decreased 4 cents from last week, respectively.  

CURRENT AND PAST PRICE AVERAGES

Regular Unleaded Gasoline

                                    Current           Week Ago      Month Ago     Year Ago

National:                    $3.548          $3.557                  $3.156              $2.818

Florida:                      $3.563          $3.584                  $3.143              $2.851

Georgia:                     $3.445          $3.480                  $3.083             $2.721

Tennessee:                 $3.401          $3.422                   $3.012            $2.700

AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report is updated each day and reflects actual prices from credit card transactions within the past 24 hours at two-thirds (100,000) gasoline stations in the U.S. Its accuracy is unparalleled.

Next Fuel Price Brief:  Sunday, March 27, 2011