Gas prices on Long Island up 80 cents from last month, AAA Northeast numbers show

Gas prices on Long Island continued their upward trend Wednesday as the nation saw average per gallon prices it hasn’t seen in nearly three years, according to data from AAA.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline hit $3.64 Wednesday on Long Island, up 20 cents from last week and nearly 80 cents above local fuel prices reported last month, according to AAA Northeast’s online gas price tracker. Despite the uptick locally, the average price for regular gas remains lower than the nation overall.

Gasoline prices locally and across the country have been growing at an "extremely accelerated rate," said Robert Sinclair Jr., senior manager of public affairs at AAA Northeast.

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped to more than $3.84 Wednesday, up from the $2.98 consumers were paying before the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, according to The Associated Press. The last time national gas prices were as expensive was in September 2023.

The price of oil, a globally-traded commodity, has been on the rise amid the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. Prices of Brent crude oil, the international standard, were trading at over $111 a barrel late in the day Wednesday.

Iran has effectively halted nearly all tanker movement in the key Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil once sailed through on a typical day, according to The Associated Press. President Donald Trump has demanded that other countries send warships to reopen the waterway, but has yet to garner any backers. 

Last week, the International Energy Agency pledged to release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles of member nations, including the United States. The Trump administration has also eased sanctions to free up some oil from Venezuela and, temporarily, Russia, the AP reported. 

Still, analysts say it takes time for new supply to trickle down to consumers.

While the region normally sees slight increases in pump prices as refineries in the United States make the change to evaporation-resistant summer blends of gas, the increases over the last few weeks have been far beyond the norm, Sinclair said.

"We might get a 25-to-30 cent per gallon bump due to the switchover to summer blends and maybe a nickel or dime because of increased demand," he said. "But an 80-cent jump in a month, that’s off the charts. 

"Nothing like that would happen during the normal summer switchover," Sinclair said.

Kevin Beyer, vice president of government affairs for the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association, said while gas prices "are going to stay elevated until the conflict is resolved," he said it's important for customers to understand that higher prices hurt retailers as well. 

Customers tend to think that when gas goes up, "the dealers are making more money, and it doesn't work that way," Beyer said. 

Because gas stations receive shipments of fuel at different times, usually receiving between 8,000 to 12,000 gallons at a time, retailers may be competing with stations who offer the same product at a lower price, he said.

As a result, retailers often "have to eat" some of the increased costs to stay competitive, Beyer said. 

"When it hurts you, it hurts us," he said.