(The Center Square) – Arizona gas prices have increased by nearly 25 cents over the past month, but an expert says that’s not unusual for this time of the year.
According to the American Automobile Association, Arizona’s current average price of regular gasoline on Thursday was $3.195 a gallon, which is above the national average of $2.929. Last month, Arizona’s average price was $2.949.
AAA spokesman Julian Paredes told The Center Square this week that gas prices have risen due to seasonality.
“Things are very cheap during the wintertime,” Paredes said. “They go up, closer to spring, and then peak around summer before dropping during fall.”
As people start driving more, there is more demand for fuel, Paredes noted.
Another factor contributing to rising gas prices in Arizona is that summer refineries are undergoing maintenance and switching to the summer gasoline blend, the spokesman said.
“For the most part, this is all pretty typical for February,” he noted.
Paredes said that although gas prices in Arizona have risen over the past month, they remain lower than a year ago.
AAA said the average price of regular gasoline at this time last year was $3.421 per gallon.
Paredes said Arizona gas prices are down because global oil prices have declined. The average price of a gallon of crude oil in February has been $64.53.
Oil prices were “pretty cheap” compared to a few years ago, which is “probably the biggest contributor to gas prices where they’re [at] right now,” Paredes said.
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has started producing more oil, and the market has adjusted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he explained.
“There is an abundance of oil in the market right now that’s keeping prices down,” Paredes said.
Arizona receives approximately 33% of its oil from California refineries. Last year, California saw a Phillips 66 oil refinery close. In 2026, a Valero oil refinery is scheduled to cease operations.
Wayne Winegarden, a Pacific Research Institute senior fellow in business and economics, said California has “very stringent environmental regulations,” such as carbon taxes and increased mandatory inventory storage requirements. The institute is based in Pasadena.
California’s environmental regulations on oil refineries impose higher costs on doing business, which makes it more difficult to operate profitably, Winegarden told The Center Square.
These environmental regulations continue to “put upward pressure on operating costs,” he said.
California consistently has seen the highest gas prices in the nation in recent years. That was the case again on Thursday when California’s average was $4.593 a gallon, according to AAA.
Parades said it’s difficult to determine the overall impact of the recent closure of California oil refineries on Arizona gas prices.
But the AAA spokesman noted, “Fewer refineries are bad for the overall supply in a region.”
