• Gasoline prices edge higher to March 2020 peak.

• Oil prices increase to last February's high.

• Natural gas prices weaken after two weeks of improvement.

The price of regular gasoline rose to $2.39 per gallon (-4.5% y/y) in the week ended January 25 from $2.38 per gallon in the previous week. It was the highest price since the first week of March 2020. Haver Analytics adjusts the gasoline price series for normal seasonal variation. The seasonally adjusted price rose to $2.61 per gallon last week from $2.58 in the previous week.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices edged up to an average of $52.83 per barrel (-6.0% y/y) in the week ended January 22, remaining the highest reading since the third week of February 2020. The price remained up versus the $17.47 per barrel low averaged in April of last year. The average price of Brent crude oil eased to $55.59 (-12.0% y/y) last week from an eleven-month high of $55.91 per barrel in the previous week.

The price of natural gas fell to $2.54/mmbtu (+31.4% y/y) in the week ended January 22 from $2.82/mmbtu in the previous week. Prices remained substantially higher than the $1.52/mmbtu low in the third week of June.

In the four weeks ended January 15, gasoline demand fell 6.3% y/y. Crude oil input to refineries fell 12.4% y/y. Gasoline inventories fell 5.7% y/y while inventories of all petroleum products rose 2.5% y/y. The supply of gasoline in inventory in the week ended January 15 was 31.4 days, up from a recent low of 26.4 days in mid-October.

These data are reported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The price data can be found in Haver's WEEKLY and DAILY databases. Greater detail on prices, as well as the demand, production and inventory data are in USENERGY.