Why Does Gas Cost 70-80 Cents A Gallon Less In Denver Than Cheyenne?

With a gas price war in the Denver metro area driving prices there to below $2 a gallon for regular unleaded — and much lower at some stations — drivers 90 minutes north in Wyoming are left wondering why they’re paying 70-80 cents more per gallon.

“Yeah, I guess I do feel ripped off now that I know it’s almost a whole dollar cheaper down there,” said John McHenry as he filled up for $2.43 a gallon at the Maverik station on Lincolnway and Ridge Road in Cheyenne.

With the cheapest gas observed in the Denver area Thursday at $1.67 per gallon at competing Shell and Murphy Express stations caught up in a price war, that’s an 84-cent difference.

That extreme low at those stations is “an aberration,” said Skyler McKinnley, a spokesman for AAA in Colorado.

Prior to this recent plunge in prices, “We haven’t had sub-$2-a-gallon prices since 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Elsewhere around the Denver metro area, prices fluctuate between the $1.90s to a low of $1.74 at a QT station in Thornton on Thursday.

Around the rest of Colorado, however, the average price is $2.56 a gallon. In Wyoming, it’s about $2.45 a gallon.

The lowest price in Wyoming on Friday was $2.12 a gallon at the Sam's Club in Casper, with a Maverik station also in Casper at $2.15, according to GasBuddy.

Asked if he knew why there’s such a price difference between the Denver area and Cheyenne, McHenry said he doesn’t really know, but has an idea.

“It must be because of the transportation of gas, I guess,” he said, adding that whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter.

“I’ve gotta have gas, so I just have to pay for it,” he said.

What A Difference 90 Miles Makes

Billy Willis, a musician from North Carolina, was filling up his 2020 Dodge Hellcat at a Murphy USA station in Parker, Colorado, on Thursday, where unleaded was going for $1.99 a gallon.

He said lower prices will benefit those who most need it.

“It will help the working men and women of America,” he said.

Another customer, John Smith of Parker, said he is pleased to see prices drop.

Denver’s low prices aren’t sitting well with some motorists in Cheyenne, where the price fluctuates.

The lowest price for a gallon of regular unleaded observed Friday across Lincolnway, one of Cheyenne’s main east-west corridors, was $2.43 a gallon. It also was $2.89, $2.59 and $2.52 within a mile and a half stretch.

Gas always seems cheaper somewhere else, said a fuel truck driver named Joe filling up the underground tanks at a Cheyenne Maverik on Friday.

“Honestly, I don’t know why there’s such a difference,” said Joe, who declined to give a last name. “I think the fuel prices here in Cheyenne at the pipeline are cheaper than in Nebraska.”

He said he knows that “because we have a line out the gate at the pipeline of Nebraska trucks getting fuel.”

Why Such A Gap?

Industry experts say several factors are fueling Denver’s rock-bottom fuel prices. 

The city’s ozone season has ended, which means service stations no longer have to use a reformulated summer-blend petroleum, which is about 30 cents more expensive than winter blend, McKinnley said.

Additionally, Denver’s large population fosters more price competition among gas stations, and the city has easier access to trucking and to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast, McKinnley said. 

There isn’t much difference in the taxes added into the price of every gallon of gas.

In Colorado, that’s 47.8 cents including federal and state taxes, and in Wyoming it’s 42.4 cents, according to both states’ respective departments of revenue.

Also, gas sales are not a big money-maker for station, so low prices are used to draw customers in to buy other stuff from their convenience stores, McKinnley said.

Wyoming’s gas prices being higher than Colorado’s is not unusual, he said.

“Sometimes that just happens on the basis of fuel supply, demand, shipping contracts, and refinery capacity and the like,” McKinnley said. “A 20-cent difference in a statewide average isn’t nothing, but it doesn’t indicate something strange afoot structurally.”

Competition among service stations in a localized area like Colorado’s Front Range is all that is needed to push the average down, said McKinnley.

“Most of Southern Wyoming is tracking with the Colorado price,” he added. “It’s the northern reaches, which are a little more expensive to get gas to, driving the statewide average up.”

Transportation costs in Wyoming also make gasoline prices higher than in Colorado, said Julian Paredes, another AAA spokesman who represents the Cowboy State.

Role Reversal

In Cheyenne filling up, McHenry said he can understand transporting gas can add to the cost, but he’s not convinced it costs that much more just for shipping.

“Yeah, I don’t know, seems like a lot,” he said.

It also seems like a lot to Mac DiGuglmo, who lives in Loveland, Colorado, but drives north on Interstate 25 to Cheyenne often. On Friday, he was parked next to the pumps at the Love’s truck stop just off exit 7.

“Yeah, gas is way cheaper down south,” he said, adding that he’s not quite sure why that is.

It’s a reversal over recent years, when DiGuglmo said he would make a point of filling up in Cheyenne because gas there was cheaper.

“That’s kind of like my major question,” he said. “I don’t know what happened to change it, but it’s kind of crazy. That’s a million-dollar question.

“I live in Loveland and I used to come here to Cheyenne for gas, but not now. Now I stay the hell away from here for gas.”

If he’s now avoiding buying gas in Cheyenne, why was DiGuglmo parked next to the pumps?

“Oh, not getting gas,” he said, grabbing one of the long-handled squeegees next to the pump. “I’m just here to wash off the windows.”

Scott Schwebke can be reached at scott@cowboystatedaily.com and Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.