New Jersey motorists could end up paying just over $3 a gallon at the pump come the spring, a forecast shows, despite gas prices having recently reached their lowest levels in years. New Jersey gas prices will likely fluctuate between $2.81 and $3.07 this year, according to data released in early January by fuel price tracking website GasBuddy.com.
At some places, like the QuickChek on Route 17 in Ramsey, gas was $2.74 a gallon on Monday, Feb. 9, while at the Wawa in Hackensack it was $2.73, GasBuddy.com reported.
Anything above $3 a gallon is considered a “pain point,” according to a poll of motorists by the travel club AAA, which estimated a 10- to 30-cent price increase per gallon by the late spring. “Every spring, gasoline demand starts to go up,” Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy.com’s head of petroleum analysis, said in a phone interview.
Refineries will soon switch to the more expensive summer blend, though New Jersey and the Northeast are usually the last region in the United States to make the transition, typically in April, De Haan said. ….