San Juan County drivers face gas prices well above state average

Drivers in San Juan County are still paying about $4.45 a gallon for regular gas, a price that sits well above both the New Mexico average and the national benchmark. On June 23, AAA put New Mexico’s regular gasoline average at $3.884 and the national average at $3.926, leaving Farmington motorists facing a noticeably steeper bill at the pump.

That gap has sharpened a long-running complaint that the county’s fuel market is too concentrated, with many of the visible stations in Farmington operating under the Speedway name after earlier Giant, Marathon and 7-Eleven branding. GasBuddy listings show Speedway locations on E. 20th Street, E. Main Street, U.S.-64, Bloomfield Highway and W. Broadway, and one W. Broadway station recently posted regular at $4.55, midgrade at $4.95, premium at $5.25 and diesel at $5.89. A GasBuddy review described one station as the highest-priced gas in the county, a sign of how visible the frustration has become.

Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett has already pressed state regulators to look into the pricing. In late December 2023, he said he had contacted the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office and asked for an investigation into possible price gouging, saying the issue was serious enough to merit scrutiny. At the time, AAA showed gas at $3.12 nationally, $2.90 in New Mexico and $3.53 in San Juan County. Duckett said county gas prices were usually only 20 to 30 cents higher because of transportation costs, but he believed something else was widening the spread.

The difference was easy to see in another price snapshot Duckett cited. AAA showed Albuquerque at $3.76 while Farmington was at $4.70, and Durango, Colorado, was lower at $4.38. That put Farmington above not just the state average, but also above a nearby regional market across the state line, undercutting the idea that the county’s prices were simply a routine Four Corners shipping premium.

The broader New Mexico market has also stayed well below San Juan County’s most prominent prices. KRQE reported in March 2026 that county averages across the state ranged from the mid-$3s to just under $4, and in late May KOB put statewide gas around $4.20 as summer travel season began. For San Juan County families and small businesses, the result is a local affordability problem layered on top of a statewide fuel-price squeeze.

That tension matters in a county rooted in energy production. New Mexico Political Report has noted that the first commercial natural gas well in the San Juan Basin was established in 1921, a reminder that northwest New Mexico has long lived with the costs and benefits of the fuel economy. Today, though, the immediate question for drivers is simpler: why are they paying so much more at the pump, and whether state officials can force more transparency in a market many residents see as too tightly controlled.