Gas prices should be near peak for the year, analysts say
Retail gasoline prices climbed by about 3 cents a gallon nationally and in California over the last week, the Energy Department said Monday as oil prices appeared to be stuck in a range of $80 to $85 a barrel.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California rose 3 cents to $3.091, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of filling stations. Nationally the price rose 3.1 cents to an average of $2.819 a gallon.
Both averages were considerably higher than they were at this time last year when California gasoline was averaging just $2.154 a gallon while most Americans were paying about $1.962 a gallon.
The only good news, analysts said, was that gasoline prices were probably near their ceiling for the year, barring a disruption in supplies.
Edgar Ang, an analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., said that no price surges were expected because summer-grade gasoline supplies would be plentiful with imports arriving next month from Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.
Light, sweet crude oil futures for April delivery rose 57 cents, or 0.7%, to $81.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Some analysts said oil was due for a fall as the euro lost value compared with the dollar amid continuing concerns about Greece’s economic crisis and the cost of a bailout.
“With the Greece debt situation still overhanging the market and taking away some confidence from the euro, the dollar should gain even more strength. For oil, that means the market is open to a wider correction,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst for PFGBest Research in Chicago.
