WASHINGTON — With gas prices continuing to soar, finding the pumps with the best deals is more important than ever. You can now track the latest and lowest gas prices in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region on the WUSA9 website with a tool from Gas Buddy.
As of Tuesday, the national average for a gallon of gas climbed to $4.17. The price of benchmark U.S. crude jumped 8% to more than $129 per barrel. Currently, the lowest pump price in D.C. is $3.85 at a BP station on Benning Road NE.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country has seen a significant increase of over 50 cents a gallon. Although the U.S. only imports about a fraction of oil from Russia, experts said the cost of oil is being impacted by the nervousness around a potential supply disruption.
“It doesn't really matter, necessarily how much oil any country is producing itself and consuming internally, because the price of oil is really set on a global basis,” said Sasha Mackler, Bipartisan Policy Center.
The increase in gas demand and a reduction in total supply is also contributing to rising prices at the pump, but skyrocketing oil prices are playing an increasingly large role.
Gasoline stocks in the U.S. fell last week even as demand is on the rise with summer approaching.
Americans can expect the current trend at the pump to continue as long as crude prices climb, the AAA said.
The United States is the world's largest oil producer — ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia — but it is also the biggest oil consumer, and it can't meet that staggering demand with domestic crude alone.