Gas prices skyrocketing in Myrtle Beach as spring break season begins
Myrtle Beach gas prices rose 8 cents in the past week to an average of $2.63 per gallon, the highest for this time of year since 2014.
Gas prices in the area are now up more than 30 cents in the past month as demand for gasoline shoots past current oil production, according to GasBuddy, a company that tracks gas prices daily around the U.S. Gas prices have been on the rise ever since refineries that serve much of the Southeast, including South Carolina, shut down during Winter Storm Uri in February.
“As Americans turn optimistic on COVID-19 pandemic recovery, we’ve been seeing insatiable demand for gasoline, which continues to recover far faster than oil production,” GasBuddy’s head petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said in a statement. “According to GasBuddy data, last week’s gasoline demand was just 1% below the pre-pandemic level, an extremely bullish factor likely to continue driving gas and oil prices up in the short term.”
At the start of the pandemic, oil companies dramatically cut production as people stayed home, airline travel evaporated and the world faced the inverse problem — too much oil and no one to buy it. Gas prices fell to an average of $1.99 in Myrtle Beach this time last year.
“It’s no longer a question of if we’ll see gasoline demand return to near normal this year but when, and will oil producers rise to the occasion and be able to quickly ramp up output, or are we going to see the highest summer prices since 2014 until they jump into action?” De Haan said.
At this time in 2014, Myrtle Beach’s average price per gallon was $3.29.
At least one gas station in South Carolina is currently charging $3 per gallon of gas, GasBuddy reports.
The increase in the Grand Strand’s gas prices also comes as hotel occupancy is beginning to rise in the region as well. The Myrtle Beach area was at 39.3% occupancy for the week ending in March 6, the most recent data available from the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s lodging dashboard. That’s a 4 percentage point increase from the week before and the first major increase in nearly a month. Vacation rentals are up 3 percentage points when looking at the same time frame.
Myrtle Beach has become a popular “drive destination” during the pandemic, which could be an additional contributing factor to the increased gas prices seen in the area in recent days. License plates from places as far as away as New York have been spotted around town this week.
