Gas prices continue to skyrocket for Rabun

CLAYTON — Gas prices are having the most expensive start to the year since 2014, according to the auto club AAA, and will be making their rounds to Rabun County.

So far this year, Georgia gas prices have climbed 10 cents. During the past week, the state average rose 2 cents. Sunday’s state average of $2.45 was 18 cents more than a month ago, and 23 cents more than this time last year.

“It has been anything but a normal January for prices at the pump,” said Mark Jenkins, a spokesman for AAA. “Normally, demand slips and supplies build. However, this story so far this year has been a rally in oil prices.

During the next few months, refineries will reduce output as they conduct maintenance on their equipment and switch to summer-blend gasoline. Which usually leads to tighter supplies and forces gas prices higher.

However, there is still hope that U.S. oil production will ramp up sooner than later, which would boost inventories and push energy prices lower.

The Energy Information Administration is forecasting a resurgence of U.S. oil production this year, in response to the recent rally in oil prices. The EIA forecasts that crude oil production will average 10.3 million barrels per day in 2018, which would mark the highest annual average production rate in U.S. history, surpassing the previous record of 9.6 million barrels per day set in 1970.

If the forecast holds, AAA said, it would be 1 million barrels per day more than last year. The EIA expects domestic production to reach 10.8 million barrels per day in 2019 and surpass 11 million in November 2019. With output numbers like these, the U.S. would surpass Saudi Arabia and rival Russia for the world’s top producer, AAA said.

Saudi Arabia has produced as much as 10.5 million barrels per day, but that rate has dropped below 10 million, due to the recent OPEC production cut agreement. Last year, Russia reached a 30-year high average production rate of 10.98 barrels per day, AAA said.