Gas Prices in 2014

The 2014 average was $3.36, 14.7¢ below 2013 and 5.7% lower after inflation. For the first half of the year, prices looked much like 2011 through 2013. The high was $3.71 in the week of April 28, and the monthly average stayed between $3.61 and $3.69 from April through July.

The second half was different. Brent crude oil peaked at about $112 a barrel in June and then fell, as U.S. tight oil production kept growing and the outlook for global demand weakened. At its November 27 meeting, OPEC announced it would keep production unchanged rather than cut output, and the EIA reported that most of November’s price decline followed that announcement; Brent fell from $85 on November 3 to $72 on November 28.

Pump prices followed crude down. The monthly average fell from $3.41 in September to $2.54 in December, the week of December 22 fell 15.1¢, and the year’s low was its final week, December 29, at $2.30, about $1.41 below the April high. The decline continued into early 2015.

Compared with 2004, the 2014 average was 81.3% higher in current dollars and 44.7% higher after inflation. Against 2009, when the recession had pushed prices down, it was up 42.7%, or 29.4% in real terms. Looking back from the full record, 2014 is 6th of the complete years since 1970 by its unadjusted average and 7th after inflation, the last year of the high-priced run that began in 2011.

The end of the year looked nothing like that average. The final week, December 29, 2014, was also the cheapest, at $2.30, below the full-year average of every year from 2009 through 2013; the lowest of those, 2009, had averaged $2.35. Of the complete years, only 2008 and 2022 had a wider gap between their highest and lowest weeks than 2014, whose high came on April 28, 2014 at $3.71.

In EIA’s all-grades state estimates for 2014, Georgia was lowest at $3.09, and Alabama came close behind at $3.12. Hawaii and Alaska were effectively tied as the most expensive states, at $4.06 and $4.06, and California ranked next at $3.61.

Between 2014 and 2015 the U.S. annual average fell 27.7% at the pump, from $3.36 to $2.43. In constant 2025 dollars the fall from 2014 to 2015 was 27.8%. The step into 2014 was smaller: from $3.51 in 2013, the average fell 4.2% at the pump and 5.7% in constant 2025 dollars.

The constant-dollar peak of the 1970–2025 record came in 2012 at $5.08. The 2014 average in the same 2025 dollars was $4.57. At the pump, the 2004 average was $1.85, and the 2014 average of $3.36 was the figure that produced a 44.7% rise in constant dollars over that span.

State figures for 2014 are EIA State Energy Data System annual averages for all grades. Hawaii at $4.06 and Georgia at $3.09 sat 96.4¢ apart, the gap between the highest-priced and lowest-priced state that year. Of the 51 states, counting D.C., 28 of 51 posted a 2014 average above the U.S. average on that basis.

The national figure for 2014 is the mean of EIA's weekly U.S. regular-grade retail prices, and the year holds 52 weeks of EIA data. Constant-dollar figures on this page are in 2025 dollars, using CPI-U, while at the pump means not adjusted for inflation.