Gas Prices In Alabama Inch Closer To $4 Per Gallon

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Gas prices are surging in Alabama as the national average hovers just above $4 per gallon for the first time in more than a decade — and analysts expect it to keep increasing in the coming weeks.

In Alabama, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $3.981 on Tuesday, according to AAA. That’s higher/lower than the national average of $4.173.

Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine has roiled the oil market, causing the global price of oil to spike and leading to higher pump prices in the United States, according to AAA. Gas prices have soared 18 cents since Wednesday and 29 cents since the invasion of Ukraine eight days ago, according to a CNN report.

The increases mark the largest price hikes since Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, devastating the nation's oil and gas industry, according to CNN.

"This is not the end of it. We're already up another 14 cents on wholesale gas prices this morning," Tom Kloza, a global petroleum analyst, told CNN on Friday. "It's absolutely out of control.”

The price of a gallon of gas varies dramatically based on where you live. In California, the average price for a gallon of gas hit a staggering $5.07 on Friday, according to AAA, making it the first state ever to have an average price above $5 a gallon.

Meanwhile, if you live in Arkansas, a gallon of gas is only $3.45.

In Alabama, gas prices have already eclipsed $4 a gallon in Blount, Bibb, Clay, Coosa, Chilton, Lamar, Winston, Marion, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Pickens, Choctaw, Sumter, Wilcox, Dallas, Lowndes, Conecuh, Escambia, Geneva, Baldwin, Butler, Henry, Barbour, Bullock, Macon, Tallapoosa and Crenshaw counties.

The counties with the lowest average price per gallon in Alabama:

• Perry: $3.832
• Marengo: $3.915
• Morgan: $3.927
• Washington: $3.931
• Lawrence: $3.936