State gasoline prices jump for first time in 13 weeks
Retail gasoline prices rose across the nation in the last week, led by California, which saw its first increase at the pump in 13 weeks. But experts said Monday that the jump did not signal a big upward trend, adding that prices would probably not rise significantly, barring supply problems, before February.
The price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in California rose 6.8 cents to $2.464, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of filling stations. Even with the increase, which reflected a rise in recent days in the price of wholesale gasoline on the spot market, the California average was still 11.8 cents lower than a year earlier.
Nationally, retail prices rose 3.2 cents during the week to $2.232, still a 6.4-cent decline from a year earlier.
Analysts gave several reasons for the increases, including slight reductions in production from routine refinery maintenance and near-record driver demand for this time of year.
But some commodities experts also cited buying sprees by big gasoline distributors.
“They are putting it in storage because they figure it’s cheaper than waiting to buy at a future date,” said Fred Rozell, director of retail pricing for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. “That is putting a strain on current supply. That is driving the price up a little, but you will not see a tremendous spike.”
Crude oil for December delivery fell $1.01 to $58.58 a barrel in New York on Monday despite U.S. and Israeli government warnings that Iran could not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, the sort of Mideast tension that often roils energy markets.
The International Energy Agency had warned Friday that growth in world demand would outpace supply in coming decades. But markets responded more to the Paris-based agency’s lowered forecast for growth in consumption this year.
“Commodities traders don’t care about the next 25 years. They only care about the next 25 minutes,” said Phil Flynn, vice president and senior market analyst for Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.
Also Monday, a consumer lobbying group reported that only three major automakers had improved the overall fuel economy of their combined car and truck fleets in the last decade.
Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler achieved modest improvements in mileage from 1996 through 2005 because of the addition of more-efficient passenger cars to their lineups, the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America said.
Passenger car sales nationally fell 3% during the period, while sales of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks rose 58%.
Improvements by Toyota, Ford and DaimlerChrysler -- maker of the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz brands -- moved the entire industry forward, with the combined average fuel economy of the 13 largest automakers increasing 2%, or 0.5 miles per gallon, to 25.4 mpg, the group said.
Toyota led the pack, rising 1.5 mpg to 29.3 mpg for its combined car and truck fleets during the 10-year period. Ford and DaimlerChrysler each posted 0.7-mpg gains, Ford rising to 24.1 mpg and DaimlerChrysler to 22.9 mpg.
The federal minimum average standard is 27.5 mpg for cars and 21.6 mpg for pickups, SUVs and minivans, with the overall truck standard set to increase to 24 mpg by 2011.
john.odell@latimes.com
