Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Office of Disaster Assistance and Petroleum Management reports that fuel prices increased on March 15th due to a sharp rise in global fuel benchmarks that began at the start of March. Petroleum Management has applied a smoothing mechanism to help lessen the impact on consumers, according to their Facebook page, which also shows a 41¢ per gallon increase in the wholesale price. Gas is now over $4 a gallon.

While specific formulas are often proprietary, smoothing typically involves using a rolling average of international benchmarks (such as Means of Platts Singapore or MOPS) rather than immediate spot prices. This allows the government to spread out the impact of price increases over time.

Gas prices suddenly went up due to escalating tensions in the Middle East, particularly the conflict with Iran, which is disrupting global oil supply and sending crude oil prices soaring. This is compounded by the seasonal shift to more expensive summer-blend gasoline and other factors like refinery issues or reduced production, but the geopolitical instability is the primary driver for the recent sharp increases, pushing oil above $100/barrel and affecting U.S. pump prices. 

Be aware that the Maximum Allowable Price (MAP) is the maximum wholesale price; retailers add their own overhead, which is what you see at the pump.