The usage and pricing of gasoline (or petrol) results from factors such as crude oil prices, processing and distribution costs, local demand, the strength of local currencies, local taxation, and the availability of local sources of gasoline (supply). Since fuels are traded worldwide, the trade prices are similar. The price paid by consumers largely reflects national pricing policy. Most countries impose taxes on gasoline (petrol), which causes air pollution and climate change; whereas a few, such as Venezuela, subsidize the cost. Some country's taxes do not cover all the negative externalities, that is they do not make the polluter pay the full cost. Western countries have among the highest usage rates per person. The largest consumer is the United States.
Fuel prices in the United States
In 2008, a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates stated that 2007 had been the year of peak gasoline usage in the United States, and that record energy prices would cause an "enduring shift" in energy consumption practices. According to the report, in April fuel consumption had been lower than a year before for the sixth straight month, suggesting 2008 would be the first year US usage declined in 17 years. The total annual distance driven in the US began declining in 2006.
The average price in 2012 was , the highest ever yearly average . , the average price of gasoline was , with New York at for the highest in the US, and Colorado at for the lowest.
Finished motor gasoline amounts to 44% of the total US consumption of petroleum products. This corresponds to . , the cost of crude oil accounted for 62% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline in the United States while refining accounted for just 12%. Taxes and distribution/marketing accounted for 12% and 14% respectively.
After Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, gas prices started rising to record high levels. In terms of the aggregate economy, increases in crude oil prices significantly predict the growth of real gross domestic product (GDP), but increases in natural gas prices do not. In August 2005, after the damages from Hurricane Katrina ran up gas prices, on August 30, a day after Katrina's landfall, prices in the spot market, which typically include a premium above the wellhead price, had surged past , and on 22 September 2005, the day before Rita's landfall, the spot price had risen to .
In the fifteen years prior to the 1973 oil crisis, gasoline prices in the U.S. had lagged well behind inflation.
A 249-page May 2004 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—the "congressional watchdog", investigating the impact of about 2,600 petroleum industry mergers from the 1990s to 2004, said that one of the consequences of the mergers was that they enhanced the ability for the merged companies to control prices. Companies engaged in exploration and production were more likely to merge to improve efficiency and to decrease costs.
In early 2020 the gas price has dropped down to a national average of $1.73 a gallon. In 2021, the average price increased to $3.01/gallon. By the end of June 2022, the price of gasoline reached a record high of over $5/gallon with some places reporting $6/gallon. While prices have come down since the peak in June, prices were beginning to tick up again. Gas prices hit $3.79 a gallon the week of September 29, 2022, up from $3.73 on September 23, 2022 — an increase of $0.06 per gallon over the last week. Since October 10, 2022, the price of gasoline has gone down again. Gas prices dropped down to $3.64 a gallon by November 28, 2022, down from $3.76 the week before – a decrease of $0.11 per gallon during that time.