oil company executives will appear at a congressional hearing this week as consumers across the country claim there’s gasoline price gouging at the pump where drivers last month paid recordhigh prices per gallon the rise in the cost for gas came amid a spike in crudeoil prices to their highest in nearly 14 years and market experts say that while there may be some cases where consumers have been overcharged for the fuel there is a reasonable explanation for the climb “the chief reason driving retail gasoline prices to a record high in march was russia’s invasion of ukraine against a tight global oil market” says brian milne editor product manager at dtn “oil demand has recovered quickly from the pandemic lockdowns outpacing supply growth with the invasion of ukraine and the subsequent sanctions on russian oil exports heightening concern over supply disruptions and shortages” that’s of little comfort for us drivers who paid an average of 4353 a gallon for gasoline on march 11 the highest price on record according to gasbuddy data on wednesday the democraticrun house energy and commerce committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations plans to have executives from major oil companies including chevron ticker cvx exxon mobil xom and bp bp testify at a hearing titled “gouged at the gas station big oil and america’s pain at the pump” the hearing comes as politicians and consumers point out that many oil companies have turned hefty profits amid the surge in oil prices bp posted its highest profit since 2012 last year people look to oilcompany profits and think they are “raising gasoline prices arbitrarily” but they also may not be looking at the “tremendous” losses for those firms in 2020 says patrick de haan head of petroleum analysis at gasbuddy the idea of gas price gouging is “not a fair assessment” of the market he says oil companies of course do better when oil prices are higher but the claims of gouging are more a “voice of frustration” over the rise in oil prices prices for fuel generally “lag on increases and decreases” in the oil price by anywhere from two to four days before starting to move in the direction of a major oilprice change says de haan and there is some “truth to the ‘rocket’ and feather prices” given that prices can “rocket” up and then slowly decline but gasoline stations are aware that the market has been extremely volatile and the last thing they want to do is cut their price significantly by say 10 or 15 cents a gallon only for wholesale prices to go up by 20 cents he says in 2021 the price of crude oil accounted for nearly 54 of the average retail price per gallon for gasoline according to the energy information administration so it makes sense that the roughly 60 rise in us oil prices as of april 1 from the same time a year ago would lead to a spike in gas prices at the pump at an average 4175 for gasoline on april 4 prices are 46 higher than a year ago gasbuddy data show but that doesn’t translate into big profits from gasoline sales for oil companies in a recent report jeff lenard vice president of strategic industry initiatives at the national association of convenience stores or nacs says that only around 39 of the country’s 145000 fueling outlets carry branded fuel from one of the five major oil companies and only about 01 of us fueling outlets are actually owned by a major oil company the markup on a gallon of gas averages 30 cents and after expenses such as credit card fees retailers have “net profits of around 10 cents a gallon” lenard says us drivers consume roughly 9 million barrels of gasoline a day multiplying by 365 days in a year and by 42 gallons in a barrel at that roughly 10 centpergallon retail net profit adds up to 14 billion in estimated annual profits from gasoline sales in the nation—for all 145000 fuel retailers says lenard “claims of price gouging along the gasoline supply chain are disingenuous looking to scapegoat an industry that is under extraordinary regulatory oversight to distract from the inflationary pressures harming american consumers” says dtn’s milne