Denver gas prices — averaging $2.388 a gallon on Monday — hit a six-month high, according to online price tracker GasBuddy.com. Monday’s average was the highest since late July and up nearly 8 cents in the past week and 22 cents in the past month.

The Denver average is still below the statewide average of $2.464, which is the nation’s 18th highest average price.

“Unfortunately I see the upward trajectory likely continuing — a barrel of WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil is up an additional 15% over the last two weeks, so there’s unlikely to be a slowdown in the rise anytime soon,” said Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis. “OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and oil producers have been hit hard the last year with a tumble in oil prices and lower demand and now with things picking back up, oil producers are cautiously optimistic and OPEC at least has yet to raise production significantly to meet the recovery in global demand.”

Remember when gas prices fell below $2 per gallon?

DeHaan predicts gas prices nationwide, already at the highest level since January 2020, will continue to climb this spring . A 50-cent-a-gallon increase would put gas prices at or above the levels reached three years ago; those, in turn, were the highest national prices since 2014, when the average topped $3.70 a gallon, according to GasBuddy’s historical data.

“The rise in gas prices continues to be driven by improving demand in the United States, and has nothing to do with who sits in the White House, but rather how many motorists are filling up their tanks on a daily basis, and from that data, it’s no guess, but prices will continue to trend higher,” De Haan said. “This situation will last as long as OPEC continues to restrain their oil production, creating the situation we’re in where demand is recovering faster than supply.”

Oil prices have jumped 15% in the past two weeks to more than $60 a barrel, the highest in more than a year. Oil prices have steady increased since November, ending a slide that began early last year and intensified last spring, when demand fell sharply amid stay-at-home orders and other state restrictions on businesses designed to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lowest prices in Denver are available at membership warehouses Costco and Sam’s Club. Costco was selling unleaded regular gas for $2.09 a gallon and Sam’s was selling gas for a penny cheaper in Denver at its store at 7805 E. 35th Ave. Prices available for all drivers were lowest at a Denver Circle K, 385 E Bromley Lane, at $2.11.

Hawaii had the nation’s highest gas price Monday at $3.60 a gallon, while Mississippi had the lowest at $2.149 a gallon.