Shorter queues at the pump, more tax
US states are rolling out fresh gasoline taxes at a time when US road fuel demand has already gone flat
For the first time in 14 years, the US state of Ohio will hike gasoline taxes this summer, joining a wave of similar increases from Arkansas to Alabama. Long denied sufficient funding for road repairs from the federal government in Washington, state-imposed gasoline taxes are meant to plug budgetary gaps, but may have a knock-on effect by further constraining the growth of US gasoline demand. For the second year in row, US gasoline consumption failed to make any progress in 2018, flattening out to just under 17.2 quadrillion Btu. More broadly, despite a recovery from the deep lows of the Great Recession, US gasoline demand still sits just below the all-time highs, set far back in 2006, of 17

Also in this section
24 June 2025
The country’s latest licensing round attracted bids from IOCs and NOCs in a better showing than its last outreach to bidders
24 June 2025
Africa’s second-largest oil producer is creating the right conditions for the sector to try to boost output, explains Ian Cloke, COO of UK-based Afentra
24 June 2025
The takeover, if it gets the all-clear from regulators and other government authorities, would propel XRG and its parent firm ADNOC into the top tier of global LNG players
23 June 2025
Jet fuel will play crucial role in oil consumption growth even with efficiency gains and environmental curbs, with geopolitical risks highlighting importance of plentiful stocks