CA gas prices to hit $4 for first time in years — and we’re already there in SLO County

California’s already-high gas prices are climbing again, and they’re about to hit $4 a gallon — an average price we haven’t seen since 2014.

As of Monday morning, the average gas price in California was $3.76 a gallon, rising 15.3 cents from the last week, according to GasBuddy.com, a service that tracks gas prices in real time.

In the San Luis Obispo area, the average price was $3.86 a gallon on Sunday, the most recent day for which data is available, according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan. That’s up 14 cents from a week ago and 38 cents from a month ago.

“California will soon be home to something not seen in nearly five years: a statewide average of over $4 per gallon,” DeHaan said in a GasBuddy news release. “It really is going to be ugly this week on the West Coast.”

A price spike is typical for springtime as refineries switch to producing fuel that meets seasonal regulations, DeHaan said. But this year, unplanned outages at California refineries as well as the rising costs of ethanol due to flooding in the Midwest and rising oil prices are creating a “triple whammy,” DeHaan said.

The average price of gas in California as of Monday is $3.76 a gallon — 25.4 cents higher than the same time last year, according to GasBuddy.

The cheapest place to get gas in the state is in Lamont, south of Bakersfield, where gas on Monday morning was a reported $3.13 a gallon, DeHaan said. The most expensive place in the state was Furnace Creek, in the Death Valley area, where gas was selling for $5.01 a gallon, according to DeHaan.

In San Luis Obispo County, prices on Monday ranged from $3.53 at the Sinclair on Morro Bay Boulevard in Morro Bay to $4.49 at the Chevron on Main Street in Cambria, according to GasBuddy’s website.

At Costco in San Luis Obispo — known for low gas prices — gas cost $3.59 a gallon on Monday, a steal compared to other prices in the city, which ranged from $3.69 a gallon at Conserv Fuel on Santa Rosa Street to $4.19 a gallon at the Shell on Broad Street and the Chevron on Monterey Street, according to GasBuddy.

Prices on average were slightly lower in the North and South counties, primarily sticking in the $3.50 to $3.90 range, with a few exceptions. Gas at the 7-Eleven on El Camino Real in Atascadero was $3.55 a gallon on Monday, and the 7-Eleven on Spring Street in Paso Robles was selling gas for $3.48 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.

Gas at Gill’s Liquor on Grand Avenue in Arroyo Grande cost $3.77 a gallon, but motorists who went to the 7-Eleven on Dolliver Street in Pismo Beach could expect to pay $3.72 a gallon.

The entire Central Coast showed gas prices higher than $3.40 on Monday afternoon, according to GasBuddy’s pricing heat map.

In other areas of California, like Fresno, the average price of gas is $3.64 per gallon, up 13.3 cents from last week, according to GasBuddy. Modesto is seeing an average price of $3.57 per gallon, up 12.6 cents from last week, and Sacramento’s average gas price as of Monday morning was $3.66 per gallon, up 14 cents from last week, DeHaan said.

The high prices will last at least another week or two, before they’ll start coming back down, DeHaan said. However, if anything else comes up that impacts gasoline production, it will take more time.

DeHaan encouraged motorists to take some time and shop around for the lowest gas prices in their area.

“There’s certainly the ability for motorists to find a cheaper station now before prices finish rising,” he said. “There’s probably some low-hanging fruit.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2019 at 2:47 PM.