SAN FRANCISCO — For the first time ever, a city in the U.S. has reached a gas price average of $5 per gallon, according to price tracker GasBuddy.
San Francisco reached the milestone Thursday morning.
While some West Coast cities have had individual gas stations that priced their gas at $5 or more, this is the first time an entire city has reached this price average.
The spike in gas prices comes as Russia invades Ukraine.
The U.S. and other countries released 60 million barrels of oil from natural reserves.
This led barrel prices to surge on Wednesday.
GasBuddy had been anticipating average gas prices in some U.S. cities to reach $5 per gallon.
However, that wasn’t expected for another “couple of weeks”, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
Other cities in California, including Los Angeles, Oakland and San Diego, are not too far behind San Francisco when it comes to gas prices.
Prices are not expected to ease down while the crisis in Ukraine continues.