Gasoline Price Hikes Slow Down

After a big jump the week before, average gasoline prices rose less than a penny across California in the last week, a federal survey showed Monday.

The average cost of self-serve regular in California edged up 0.7 cent during the last seven days to $2.424 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the federal Energy Department.

Pump prices in California had jumped 9 cents in the previous survey.

Nationwide, the average cost of self-serve regular rose 1.6 cents in the last seven days to $2.336 a gallon, the survey found.

In the futures market, gasoline for February delivery fell 2.38 cents to $1.793 a gallon Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the first decline in several trading sessions.

U.S. light sweet crude for March delivery closed down 38 cents at $68.10 a barrel.

Although the nation’s oil inventory is considered sufficient, traders had been pushing futures prices up in recent sessions on fears that a production stoppage in Nigeria and rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program would crimp future supplies.

-- Elizabeth Douglass