Gas Prices in 1999

The average price rose 10.0% in 1999, to $1.15 a gallon, and 7.6% after inflation, to $2.23 in 2025 dollars. The real price was still the 2nd-lowest in the record, after 1998.

On March 23, 1999, OPEC members and several non-OPEC producers agreed to reduce output by a combined 2.1 million barrels a day from April 1, with OPEC members accounting for about 1.7 million. In June the EIA projected that OPEC members would carry out about 75 percent of the cuts they had agreed since 1998. With demand in Asia recovering, crude prices rose through the year, and in September OPEC agreed to keep the cuts in place through March 2000.

The increase in 1999 was the start of a larger move. The EIA’s weekly retail survey, which the site uses from 2000 onward, shows the national average continuing to rise into 2000, and the 2000 annual average was 28.6% above 1999. The two series are measured differently, so the comparison across 1999 and 2000 is approximate.

Two Western states were among the four most expensive in 1999: Oregon was second at $1.37 and Nevada fourth at $1.32, with Hawaii ($1.40) first and Connecticut third. California and Washington tied for fifth at $1.30, so Connecticut was the only one of the six highest outside the West. Georgia was the cheapest state for the 13th year running, at $0.97, with South Carolina second at $1.02. Hawaii’s margin over the national average was 25.0¢.

Twenty years earlier, in 1979, the pump price had been lower but the real price far higher. The 1999 average of $1.15 was 29.8% above 1979 at the pump and 43.4% below it in 2025 dollars. Against 1989 the pattern was the same on a smaller scale, up 15.1% in current dollars and down 14.4% in real ones.

The ten years that followed moved both measures up. By 2009 the national average was 103.8% higher at the pump and 58.3% higher after inflation, and by 2019 the pump price was up 125.6%. In the full record 1999 ranks 32nd-highest in current dollars, near the middle, and 55th-highest in 2025 dollars ($2.23).

The U.S. annual average was $1.05 in 1998 and $1.48 in 2000, with 1999 at $1.15 between them. The 2000 figure is on a regular-grade basis, while the 1999 figure covers all grades, so the step from 1999 to 2000 is approximate. In constant 2025 dollars that step was an increase of 24.4%, and the 1998 to 1999 step was an increase of 7.6%.

The highest U.S. annual average in constant 2025 dollars was $5.08, in 2012. The 1999 average in the same dollars was $2.23. In 1989 the pump price was $1.00, and the real price fell 14.4% between 1989 and 1999.

Among states in 1999, Georgia ($0.97) was the cheapest and Hawaii ($1.40) the most expensive, a difference of 43.7¢. In 1999, 30 of 51 states, counting D.C., averaged above the U.S. figure of $1.15.

The 1999 national figure is the EIA State Energy Data System average for all grades of motor gasoline, taxes included, and is approximate. The site holds no weekly data for 1999.