$7 gas hits Bay Area station as prices remain high at California pumps

A Chevron gas station in Menlo Park, Calif., was charging a stunning $7.29 a gallon on Wednesday. The station is known for prices that usually run higher than those of other stations in the area. When gas prices soar, which they have been done in the US and especially California recently, photographs of the station in the heart of the Silicon Valley often become a symbol of what Californians are paying at the pump.

“The Menlo Park Chevron on Alameda de las Pulgas is outta their mind with these gas prices!!” a Reddit post featuring an image of the Chevron station read on Thursday.

California had the highest gas prices in the country on Friday with the average price per gallon at $5.878, which is more than $2 above the national average of $3.746, according to AAA, which tracks gas prices across the country.

Today’s California high is below the state’s highest-ever average of $6.438, recorded in June 2022, but it’s above where where prices were a month ago at $5.347.

Gas in California is generally more expensive than in any other state due to taxes and environmental fees and the overall higher cost to refine gas that meets state requirements — but gas is pricey in the Golden State right now for other reasons too, mainly maintenance issues at oil refineries, according to AAA spokesperson John Treanor. 

A lot has happened with the price of gas in the past two or three years. The United States saw records broken again and again, especially in 2022, due to supply-and-demand issues during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The response to this war was the global removal of Russia from the oil market,” Treanor wrote in an email to SFGATE. “Russia was a large producer of crude oil and their removal caused prices of crude oil to climb quickly. This combination of increased demand and increased oil price led to those record gas prices.”

Gas prices usually climb in summer across the country due to increased demand from summer travel and the higher cost of the summer blend of gas required by the Environmental Protection Agency, which burns cleaner, Treanor said. This summer prices inched up higher than usual, in part due to Saudi Arabia and Russia slashing production through the end of 2023 and China importing oil at a high rate, the New York Times reported in September.

The price of crude oil globally drives the price of gas. “Any shift to the price of crude oil will more dramatically than anything else impact the price,” Treanor said over the phone on Friday. 

Prices across the country have dipped since mid-September; Treanor said a decrease usually occurs after Labor Day when summer travel season ends. California has yet to see a significant decrease.

“California has a separate issue,” he said. “California had issues with maintenance at oil refineries — either planned or unplanned — that was really a California issue. We’re still seeing the impacts of that.”

He added in an email: “Maintenance issues prevent refineries from producing gasoline at typical levels which causes a shift in supply and therefore affects prices.”

Treanor said the maintenance issues at California refineries are also impacting the price of gas in Arizona and Nevada. 

As for why the gas is so high at the Menlo Park station, SFGATE tried to pose that question to a man sitting behind the counter on Wednesday. “I don’t have time to talk right now,” he said. SFGATE found that other nearby stations were charging generally a dollar less.