Gas Prices in 2013

Gasoline averaged $3.51 in 2013, 11.3¢ less than in 2012 and 4.5% lower after inflation. Even so, 2013 ranks fifth among all years since 1970 after adjusting for inflation, behind 1981, 2008, 2011, and 2012. Crude oil prices remained high, and the year’s price range, about 59¢ from low to high, was narrow.

The high came unusually early. The national average rose from $3.25 in mid-December 2012 to $3.78 in the week of February 25, 2013, including an 18.1¢ increase in the week of February 4, the year’s largest. The EIA reported that on the East Coast, refinery outages, rising crude oil prices, and the announced closing of a refinery sent prices briefly higher in late February.

After February, prices drifted lower for most of the year. The EIA noted that high refinery runs to meet demand for diesel and heating oil also produced ample gasoline supply. The monthly average stayed near $3.60 through summer, then fell to $3.24 in November. The year’s low, $3.19, came in the week of November 11, and the year ended at $3.33.

Over the decade from 2003, the national average more than doubled in current dollars, rising 124.5% to $3.51. Adjusted for inflation the increase was 77.4%.

The five-year comparison is flatter. In current dollars 2013 was 8.0% above 2008, the year of the July record and the December collapse, but after inflation the two years were almost level, at $4.86 for 2008 and $4.85 for 2013. By the unadjusted annual average, 2013 is 5th among the complete years from 1970 through 2025, part of the run of high-priced years from 2011 to 2014. Its cheapest week, $3.19 on November 11, 2013, was above the annual average of every year before 2011 except 2008, when the year as a whole averaged $3.25.

The state estimates EIA publishes, which average all grades, put Hawaii ($4.20) and Alaska ($4.19) within a cent of each other at the top in 2013, with California third at $3.74, 29.8¢ above the national figure. Georgia ($3.21) and South Carolina ($3.26) were the two lowest, against a U.S. all-grades figure of $3.45.

In constant 2025 dollars, the highest U.S. annual average from 1970 to 2025 was $5.08, recorded in 2012. The 2013 average of $4.85 in those dollars was a 4.5% decrease from 2012. At the pump, the average fell 3.1% from $3.62 in 2012 to $3.51 in 2013.

The 2014 average was $3.36. The change from 2013 to 2014 was a 4.2% decrease at the pump and a 5.7% decrease in constant 2025 dollars.

A decade earlier, the 2003 average was $1.56 at the pump.

State figures come from the EIA State Energy Data System and average all grades. In 2013, Georgia was the cheapest state at $3.21 and Hawaii the most expensive at $4.20, a difference of 98.1¢. In 2013, 28 of 51 states, counting D.C., had an average above the U.S. average on that basis.

The 2013 series covers 52 weeks of EIA data, and the ranks above are counted among 56 complete years from 1970 to 2025.