Myrtle Beach gas prices drop 3rd time in 3 weeks. Are the worst fuel hikes in the past?
We don’t want to jinx it but — Myrtle Beach gas prices have fallen three times three weeks in a row.
Knock on wood.
On Monday, the average price per gallon in the Grand Strand was $3.83, roughly 20 cents lower than when prices spiked in March to their highest levels in years, according to GasBuddy, which tracks gasoline prices nationwide.
It might not seem like much; for a 15-gallon fill-up, that’s $3 saved. However, what’s more important than the amount is the steady decline happening week after week.
From Feb. 28 to March 7, local gas prices rose 43 cents to $4.02, according to GasBuddy. The following week, March 14, the cost per gallon remained unchanged. The week after that, March 21, they dropped about 10 cents. Finally, in the last two weeks, the average cost per gallon of gas dropped another 5 cents each week.
At $3.83 per gallon, though, gasoline in Myrtle Beach still is the most expensive it’s been in at least 10 years and costs $1.29 more than a year ago.
“While the national average should start to stabilize for the time being, there’s no telling what’s around the corner, at least for now, as the volatility in oil prices persists,” GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, said in a statement March 28.
The primary cause for gasoline’s price inflation has been the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war scared fuel suppliers and refiners all over the world as they wondered whether access to Russian oil and natural gas would be cut off due to the war and subsequent sanctions.
Prices had already been on the rise for much of winter, as demand for travel grew several weeks before spring break, the normal source of gasoline inflation during this time of year.
On March 21, the first week that Myrtle Beach saw a decline in gas prices, De Haan said in a statement that gas prices could still end up climbing much further, especially as the nation enters the summer travel season.
“If the situation does worsen, with more oil being kept away from global markets, it’s not impossible that gas prices would still have to climb a considerable amount for Americans to start curbing their insatiable demand for gasoline,” De Haan said in his March 21 statement.
The recent decline in prices has two main reasons, De Haan said:
- COVID-19 cases in China surged, resulting in new lockdowns and lowering oil demand.
- President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would release 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (1 million per day for the next six months).
The decline in prices comes at a good time for Myrtle Beach. Easter is less than two weeks away, and the weeks before and after the holiday tend to be the two biggest weeks for spring travel in the Grand Strand, according to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
“Gas prices in nearly all areas of the country (have fallen) over the last week,” De Haan said in a statement Monday. “So long as oil prices remain under $100 per barrel and there’s no escalations in Russia’s war on Ukraine, we may be poised to see gas prices decline again this week as the U.S. and other countries try to raise oil supply to tip prices lower.”
Regardless, Myrtle Beach tourism tends to be somewhat immune to rising gas prices because when inflation like this occurs, people typically search for cheaper vacations rather than not vacationing at all. That’s perfect for Myrtle Beach, the chamber and experts say, because the Grand Strand has maintained its status as being more affordable than its competitors, even as inflation runs through the country.
The week ending March 19, hotel occupancy rose 25% to 66%, the highest so far this year, according to data from the chamber. That was nearly two weeks after gas prices first surged, so tourists, at least initially, were not scared off by their trips getting a little more expensive.
Here are the average gas prices in other areas.
- Fayetteville: $3.86 per gallon, down 5.9 cents from last week’s $3.92.
- North Carolina: $4.01 per gallon, down 1.2 cents from last week’s $4.02.
- South Carolina: $3.82 per gallon, down 7.6 cents from last week’s $3.89.
Myrtle Beach and South Carolina have long been able to maintain cheaper fuel prices than North Carolina throughout the inflation of past the 12 months, according to GasBuddy’s data.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 2:20 PM.
