Staff report

Gas prices are 10 cents higher in Northeast Ohio this week at $2.898 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report released Monday.

As winter weather grips much of the nation, the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded has gone up six cents over the past week to $2.88. Even though the national average is higher this week, prices are still 24 cents cheaper than they were a year ago.

This is the time of year when gasoline demand is usually lower as fewer drivers hit the road, AAA reported.

According to new data from the Energy Information Administration, gasoline demand decreased last week from 8.30 million barrels per day to 7.83 million. Total domestic gasoline supply increased from 251 million barrels to 257 million. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 8.8 million barrels per day.

At the close of Monday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate Oil settled at $60.46 a barrel. The EIA reports crude oil inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 426.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 2% below the five-year average for this time of year.

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline today in various areas are as follows: $2.677, Alliance; $2.921, Ashtabula; $2.815, Niles; $2.978, Ravenna; and $2.816, Youngstown.

The national average per kilowatt hour of electricity at a public EV charging station remains at 38 cents.

AAA East Central is a not-for-profit association with 69 local offices in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia serving 2.7 million members.