Gas prices in the Midland/Odessa area have spiked this week and here are some factors causing it.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, the prices going up are being caused by the increased number of hurricanes that have hit the Gulf of Mexico in the past month but Midland/Odessa is seeing a bigger spike than the rest of the state.

The average price of gas in Midland increased to $3.03 which is up 8 cents, in Odessa it jumped 10 cents to $3.09.

Only one other metropolitan area that is monitored by AAA Texas went up by more than 5 cents over last week, and that area was Laredo which only increased 6 cents.

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Midland/Odessa currently rank first and third in the state for highest gas prices, El Paso came in between the two cities at $3.05 which was a drop of 8 cents from last week.

But even though a spike in prices happened here in our area, AAA Texas reports that overall the state of Texas is paying the second lowest average gas prices in the country.

Pump prices have the potential to still be volatile at times over the next few weeks as the Gulf of Mexico has experienced two hurricanes recently in Texas and Louisiana, impacting the oil and gas industry,” said AAA Texas spokesperson Daniel Armbruster in the weekly report. “However, as we approach the fall season, and barring any major disruptions, drivers could see gas prices decrease as fewer people tend to take road trips this time of the year.”

Here in our area, the average price of gas has increased $1 over the last year and statewide that number is 92 cents.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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