New Jersey motorists faced with rising gasoline prices can save at least a few cents by filling up their vehicles on Tuesdays, an analysis by GasBuddyhas found.
Conversely, they might want to avoid Saturdays, the gas price tracking website says. The siteanalyzeddaily prices from Jan. 1 through Dec. 16 of last year.
"The one underlying theme we see consistently isweekends are not the best time to fill up in terms of prices," Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis.
More motorists are looking for relief. New Jersey gas prices now average$3.43 a gallon, according to AAA, up 33% from a year ago. And some analysts predict prices could top $4 a gallon this summer.
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The price hikein recent weeks has been driven in part by tight supplies and political tensions between Ukraine and Russia, a majoroil producer, that have sent the price of crude oil above$87 a barrel.
With gasoline prices advertised in giant numbers virtually on every corner, the increase hasn't gone unnoticed.
Tonnia Hart, 50, of Long Branch, said she makes sure to fill up near the doctor's office in Hazlet where she works, where prices seem to be cheaper.
She doesn't have the luxury of working from home, so she has set aside more money from her budget to pay for gas.
"It's like summer prices," Hart said. "Summer it goes up, and in winter it goes down.Well, we're stuck in summer."
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The summer driving season could see prices continue to rise. Morgan Stanley analysts, who lowered their forecast in November because of fears that the omicron variant of the viruswould slow down demand, now saythey expect crude oil prices to exceed $100 a barrel by the summer.
The reason? Demand remains strong and inventory is dwindling.
Not everyone agrees. The U.S. Energy Information Administration two weeks ago said it expected retail gas prices to decline in 2022as demand slows.
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Boston-based GasBuddy, which collects real-time gas price information from 150,000 stations nationwide, found that prices nationwide are typically less expensive earlier in the week.
Some states have their own quirks. New York drivers, for example,pay the least on Saturday and the most on Wednesday, the study found.
But New Jerseyans probably shouldn't go out of their way to find out;New York's average gas prices remain 12 cents a gallon higher than they are inthe Garden State, according to AAA.
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New Jersey gas prices for their part continue toadhere to pre-pandemic patterns, when they reflected lower demand early in the week, according to GasBuddy.
"Monday and Tuesday are generally the weakest, especiallyin this COVIDera when people aren’t going back to the office," DeHaansaid.
Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for more than 20 years. He can be reached at [email protected].
