North Dakota Gas Prices This Week

In the EIA’s July 2026 (revised August 2026) table of motor fuel taxes, North Dakota’s state taxes and fees on gasoline total 23.0¢ a gallon, the 9th-lowest of the 50 states and D.C. The 51-jurisdiction average is 33.8¢, and the federal tax adds 18.4¢ everywhere. The North Dakota excise tax has been 23¢ a gallon since 2005, when it rose from 21¢. The only other state charge is an inspection fee of a fraction of a cent.

North Dakota has one refinery, Marathon’s plant at Mandan, with a capacity of 72,000 barrels a day, according to the EIA. The state produces far more crude oil than that refinery uses, mostly from the Bakken formation, and ships most of it out of state. North Dakota has no federal reformulated-gasoline areas.

North Dakota has no weekly EIA series. The Midwest region’s weekly prices over 2004–2025 averaged 9.8% below their annual mean in January and 7.5% above in June.

North Dakota’s annual average ranged from 2.2¢ to 16.4¢ above the U.S. average from 2000 through 2014. The largest gaps in those years came in 2011 and 2013, at 16.4¢ above and 14.7¢ above, when it ranked 41st and 40th-cheapest of the 51. Its highest-priced ranking since 2000 was 48th, in 2007. From 2015 through 2024 the gap ranged from 3.2¢ below to 6.9¢ above, with rankings between 26th and 34th. Early in the record North Dakota was often cheaper: it ranked 2nd-cheapest in 1972. The highest annual average is $3.96, in 2022. Adjusted for inflation, the highest was 2012 (2011 was within a cent), at $5.17 in 2025 dollars, and the lowest 1998, at $1.05 ($2.08 in 2025 dollars). Its 2022 average and its inflation-adjusted high are both the highest among the ten Midwest states without weekly data.

North Dakota is a crude oil producer, but its drivers have rarely paid less than the national average. In the EIA’s annual state series the state was below the U.S. figure in only 1970, 1972, 1974, 1995–1997, 1999, and 2020; every other year it was above.

The premium was widest during the Bakken drilling boom. In 2011 North Dakota averaged 16.4¢ more than the U.S. figure, and the gap stayed wider than a dime in each of 2011, 2012 and 2013, when the influx of workers and trucks raised fuel demand in the western counties. Its highest-priced ranking came a little earlier, 48th of 51 in 2007.

Between 2014 and 2024 the state moved from 38th to 32nd in the ranking, counted from the cheapest, as its price went from $3.44 to $3.31. In 2024 it was still 2.8¢ above the U.S. average. Minnesota ($3.15) and South Dakota ($3.23) were both cheaper that year; Montana ($3.33) was the one neighbor with a higher average. Across the whole series, Minnesota has been the cheaper of the two in 42 of the 55 years.

North Dakota's record begins at 18th-cheapest in 1970, with an average of $0.35. In 1980 it was 33rd-cheapest at $1.25, and in 1990 it was 43rd-cheapest at $1.23. The 2000 average of $1.54 ranked 38th-cheapest. In 2010 the rank was 39th-cheapest at $2.84, and in 2020 it was 26th-cheapest at $2.13.

From 1970 to 2024 the state averaged below the U.S. figure in 8 of 55 years, 2020 among them, and above it in 47 of 55. North Dakota averaged 3.5¢ below the U.S. in 1972, the largest such amount in the record.

The 41.2% rise in 2021 is the largest one-year increase in the annual average, and the 28.3% fall in 2015 is the largest one-year decrease. Both years come after 2010, so each of those moves is the move of the state's region, as estimated by the EIA.

In 2024 North Dakota ranked 20th-most-expensive, with an average of $3.31 against $3.29 for the U.S. In 2025 dollars that 2024 average is $3.40. Two of the three bordering states averaged less than North Dakota that year, and it was 16.5¢ above Minnesota.

The average state total for taxes and fees across the 50 states and D.C. is 33.8¢ (EIA table, July 2026) a gallon. North Dakota's 23.0¢ (EIA table, July 2026) is 10.7¢ below that figure.