Gas Will Top $1 a Gallon by Summer, Energy Dept. Says

The average price of gasoline should climb back over the $1-a-gallon mark this summer, slowing the growth of driving and resulting in a drop in fuel use for the season, the Energy Department predicted Wednesday.

The quarterly forecasts of energy markets and supplies by the department’s Energy Information Administration also saw higher crude oil prices and fairly stable domestic crude oil production from now into next spring.

The average pump price of gasoline of all grades, including state and local taxes and lumping together full-service and self-service stations, was 93 cents a gallon for all of 1986, 87 cents during the summer and 90 cents in the first three months of 1987, the department calculated.

This year, the summer average will be $1, and that figure should rise two cents a gallon in each of the following quarters, it said.

Driving increased by 5% last summer over the 1985 season, but this year the increase should be about 2.1%, the report said.

By the end of May, at least 12 states will have installed 65 miles per hour speed limits on rural interstate highways, an increase of 10 m.p.h. from the nationwide maximum last year.

Although cars lose 5% to 30% in fuel economy at the higher speed, the department made no explicit forecast of what the increase in gasoline demand would be as a result, other than to guess that it would be “several hundred thousand barrels per day.”

The forecast said the base price of crude oil would average $18 a barrel for the final three quarters of 1987, rising to $19 for the first half of next year.