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Gas prices in Kentucky, which saw a nearly 25 cents per gallon spike during the last week of July, are now starting to ease somewhat, according to gasbuddy.com, a crowd-sourced gasoline price website and mobile app.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the statewide average for regular gas was $3.43 per gallon, based on data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country during the past seven days.  This compares to $3.48 last week, $3.22 a month ago, and $3.66 per gallon during the same time in 2022.

The nationwide average, meanwhile, was $3.77, three cents lower than a week ago.  Last month the national average was  $3.52 and $4.01 a year ago.

Patrick De Haan, head of Petroleum Analysis for GasBuddy, noted that the recent spike was due to “a continued rise in oil and continued pressure from hot weather that impacted refineries.  However, the pace of increases started to slow down over the last few days, and for now, appears to have hit a peak over the weekend and is beginning to gently fall.”

He also noted, “The price of diesel, however, continues to rise at a fairly strong pace, with average prices up nearly 15 cents per gallon from a week ago.  Diesel will likely continue to see upward momentum while gasoline price increases should become more limited.”

Looking ahead, De Haan noted, “With oil remaining under pressure from Saudi Arabia extending its one million barrel per day production cut into September, the respite from gasoline rising may not last long. Plus, there remain unknowns about hurricane season that will likely become more active in the weeks ahead.”

That’s because should hurricanes, especially powerful ones, develop in the Gulf of Mexico, that will not only shut down the drilling platforms, but systems that make landfall along the Gulf Coast may damage the refineries, which could take weeks to repair.

Fortunately, there were no tropical systems in the Gulf or the Atlantic Ocean as of Tuesday afternoon.