Gas prices continue to rise across Texas

Gas prices just keep creeping up.

Pump prices statewide climbed again, for the fourth week in a row, to hit $1.86 a gallon this week, according to the AAA Texas Fuel Gauge. In the past two weeks the statewide average for unleaded gas has jumped 23 cents.

Dallas drivers are paying the most in the state’s major metropolitan areas at $1.95, while motorists in El Paso are shelling out the least at $1.77. In Fort Worth and Arlington, the average price jumped 7 cents to $1.94, following a 23 cent increase the week before, the agency reported.

The national average this week crept five cents higher to $2.01.

Gas is still cheaper than it was a year ago, when the statewide average for unleaded was $2.23 a gallon. In Fort Worth and Arlington, it was 32 cents higher at $2.26.

This is the time of year when gas prices tend to climb, as people tend to hit the road, increasing demand for fuel.

Also every spring, refineries begin the transition to produce more expensive, environmentally sensitive fuel needed by gas stations for the summer. Nationally, they must be selling the cleaner blend by June 1.

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Gas prices continue to rise across Texas."