The average gas prices in Northeast Ohio are continuing to decrease, with this week's average gas price at $3.001 per gallon. Four cents lower than last week.

Despite this decline, gas prices in Northeast Ohio are still up over 70 cents higher than this time in 2020. At this time in 2020, the average gas price for Northeat Ohio was $2.220 per gallon.

Gas prices fluctuated over the past few days as fear of an omicron-driven economic slowdown was conquered by news of a severe fire at the Exxon Mobil Corp. oil refinery in Baytown, Texas.

Exxon Mobil Corp. is one of the largest refining and petrochemical facilities in the United States. If the damage forces the plant offline for long, this disruption could negatively affect gas prices.

According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), total domestic gasoline stocks increased by 5.5. million barrels to 224.1 million barrels last week. 

On the other hand, gasoline demand decreased from 9.47 million b/d to 8.99 million b/d. Typically, decreased demand and increased supply would support larger drops in pump prices, but fluctuations in the price of crude oil have contributed to keeping pump prices elevated.

At the close of last week's formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate increased by $1.03 to settle at $73.79.

Despite demand concerns over the omicron variant of COVID-19, crude prices increased after the EIA reported that total domestic crude stocks decreased by 4.7 million barrels last week to 423.6 million barrels. 

The current stock level is 15.2% lower than in December of 2020 contributing to pressure on domestic crude prices.