Gasoline prices rise, but more slowly

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Gasoline prices have slowed their hair-raising climb as the average price of a gallon in California closed in on the $3 mark, an Energy Department report showed today.

Prices rose even though oil lost some momentum because of a strengthening dollar. Crude oil for July delivery finished the day down $1.42 at $70.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

But analysts were still wondering when gasoline prices would finally fall. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California rose 8.8 cents to $2.979 a gallon, according to the weekly survey of filling stations by the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistical arm. That’s $1.105 higher than the survey’s first analysis of the year, released Jan. 5.

In some parts of the state, $3 gasoline was old news. A Mobil station in Goleta, near Santa Barbara, was charging $3.69 a gallon and a Chevron in Shoshone, near Death Valley National Park, was posting $3.66, according to Gasbuddy.com, a national system of price-reporting websites.

Driving past stations charging $3 a gallon or more was doing much to dash some consumers’ hopes of an economic recovery, especially because the surge in prices began so early in the year.

“It’s horrible. It’s unbelievable,” said 69-year-old Alfred Diaz of San Dimas, a retired aerospace industry cost analyst whose wife, Martha, still commutes daily to her job as a community college educational advisor. “I think it’s going to make the recession worse. It’s definitely going to hurt the economy.”

Diaz said the couple are back to the habits they employed during last year’s run-up in gasoline prices, which culminated in a record high: above $4.58 a gallon in California and $4.11 nationally. They are driving less and consolidating trips.

“That’s all we can do,” Diaz said.

The national average rose 4.8 cents to $2.672 for the week. It began the year at just $1.684 a gallon.

Analysts didn’t offer much encouragement.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., said that gasoline prices may be close to a peak.

But fuel pricing analyst Bob van der Valk wasn’t so optimistic. He said that California gasoline would hit $3.25 a gallon in the coming weeks and that the national average would come very close to $3 a gallon.

“I was a pricing manager for Unocal for many years,” said Van der Valk, who works for 4Refuel Inc. of Lynnwood, Wash. “It’s pricing according to what the market will bear.”

-- Ron White