Seattle-area gas prices begin to tick down after peaking early in week

Gas prices in the Seattle area have finally begun to tick back down, having now declined in each of the last three days.

Rates in the Seattle metropolitan area — spanning Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett — peaked at $4.91 a gallon on Tuesday, March 15. The following day, that number dipped slightly to $4.90, before falling another fraction of a cent on Thursday. As of Friday morning, Seattle area gas prices now sit at an average of $4.89 a gallon.

A similar trend has played out for Washington’s statewide average as well, dropping from $4.74 a gallon on Tuesday to $4.72 on Friday. That’s also still the fourth highest rate in the nation, behind California ($5.80 a gallon), Hawaii ($5.11), and Nevada ($5.04).

According to AAA, the national average has decreased by four cents since the start of the week, attributed at least partly to a drop in demand from consumers, as well as “downward pressure” created by the falling price of oil.

While peak prices were driven in large part by uncertainty created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, AAA notes that the subsequent dip in global oil prices was the result of new COVID-19 lockdown measures recently enacted in China, which are expected to drive demand for gas down even further.

Whether this recent decrease in gas prices will continue remains uncertain, given that sanctions against importing Russian oil to the United States remain in place.

“It bears reminding that the cost of oil accounts for about 50% of what drivers pay at the pump,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a recent news release. “This war is roiling an already tight global oil market and making it hard to determine if we are near a peak for pump prices, or if they keep grinding higher. It all depends on the direction of oil prices.”

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