The San Francisco Bay Area has the most expensive gas in the country, and it may get worse soon - SFGate

The Bay Area can celebrate the dubious honor of having the most expensive gasoline in the whole United States.

Regular-grade gas averages in the Bay Area at about $4.33 per gallon as of Sunday, an increase of about 7 cents in the last week, said Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said that the rise nationwide is less than the increasing cost of crude oil, meaning that another rise is due on the horizon. That, in addition to wholesale increases and new taxes on gas, could intensify upticks in cost throughout the nation.

Those cost increases, along with labor shortages in the industry, mean that gas prices are expected to continue to increase over the summer without much relief. Truck drivers and other gasoline workers were laid off during the pandemic, leading to staffing issues.

"It may be a while [until gas prices go down] because of COVID-induced headaches that have persisted," De Haan said. "The oil industry made long-term decisions to shut down production, and here we are and now the oil industry is in the same boat that everyone else is in with labor challenges."

In the Bay Area and across the West Coast, De Haan says the issue will be more dire than in many other parts of the country.

"Unfortunately, the West Coast, including California, Oregon and Washington, have not only seen the traditional rise in demand as the rest of country has as COVID has [increased demand], but there have been some refining spats that have compounded the problems," he told SFGATE.

These refinery issues have been minor but considerable enough to "tilt the balance" of supply, he said.

De Haan expects that gas prices in the Bay Area could reach the $4.50 mark in the summer due to post-pandemic demand, pandemic-induced labor shortages and these refinery woes. Peak gas prices will likely come in four to six weeks.

There's a small silver lining, De Haan says, in that gas prices will likely not break the record highs set in 2012, when a gallon could run $4.75 on average in the bay.

Another relief point could arrive if remote workers are allowed to stay remote through the year, De Haan said. The gas industry usually sees prices decline at the end of the summer once summer road trips and weekend getaways begin phasing out, but he worries that this familiar source of reduced gas prices could vanish once people are encouraged to re-enter the in-person workforce.

"If those commutes return this autumn, that may offset that seasonal downturn and it could keep prices high," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The San Francisco Bay Area has the most expensive gas in the country, and it may get worse soon - SFGate
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