Gas Prices in 2015

Gasoline averaged $2.43 in 2015, 92.9¢ less than in 2014, the largest decline in unadjusted dollars of any year in the weekly series. After inflation the drop was 27.8%. The cause was the fall in crude oil that began in mid-2014: global supply, including growing U.S. production, continued to exceed demand, and crude prices stayed far below their 2011–2014 levels.

Within the year, the usual seasonal pattern returned. Prices rose from $2.21 in the first week of January to $2.84 in the week of June 15, the year’s high. The largest weekly increase, 14.1¢, came in the week of March 2, and California’s price rose much more that spring after an explosion at the ExxonMobil Torrance refinery in February. Crude oil fell again in the second half, and the largest weekly decline, 12.7¢, came in the week of August 31. The low, $2.03, came in the week of December 21. The New York Harbor wholesale price averaged $1.61 a gallon, down from $2.61 in 2014, a larger drop than at the pump.

Five years after 2010, the average had fallen 12.7%, to $2.43; after inflation the drop was 19.7%. The ten-year comparison splits. In current dollars 2015 was 7.0% above 2005, but in real terms it was 11.8% below it, so once inflation is counted a gallon cost less in 2015 than in the year of Hurricane Katrina.

The drop moved 2015 well down the long-run table. Among the complete years from 1970 through 2025 it ranks 16th by unadjusted price, and 27th by price in 2025 dollars, behind every year from 2005 through 2014 on the second measure. No week from 2010 through 2014 had been as cheap as the low of $2.03 reached on December 21, 2015.

Alabama ($2.19) and Mississippi ($2.20) had the two lowest state averages in EIA’s all-grades estimates for 2015, less than a cent apart, and Louisiana was just behind at $2.20. Georgia, the cheapest state in every year from 2009 through 2014, ranked 5th. Hawaii, at $3.33, and Alaska, at $3.33, were the highest, while the U.S. figure on the same basis was $2.43; California, third, was 63.3¢ above it.

The national average stood at $3.36 in 2014, $2.43 in 2015 and $2.14 in 2016. From 2014 to 2015 it fell 27.7% at the pump, and from 2015 to 2016 it fell a further 11.8%. Measured in constant 2025 dollars, the change from 2015 to 2016 was a decrease of 12.9%.

In constant 2025 dollars, the annual average reached $5.08 in 2012, the highest from 1970 to 2025. The 2015 figure in the same dollars was $3.30.

The 2015 national figure of $2.43 is the mean of EIA's weekly U.S. regular-grade retail prices, and EIA holds 52 weeks of data for that year. The highest and lowest weekly prices of 2015 were 80.9¢ apart.

On the all-grades basis of the EIA State Energy Data System, Alabama, at $2.19, had the lowest state average in 2015 and Hawaii, at $3.33, the highest, a difference of $1.14. Above the U.S. figure on that basis in 2015 were 22 of 51 states, D.C. included.