Gasoline prices up in most of U.S.

Pump prices headed higher across most of the country over the last week, with costs jumping the most in the Midwest and along the West Coast, a government survey showed Monday.

The nation’s average retail cost of gasoline marked its first increase of the year, rising to $2.191 on Monday for a gallon of self-serve regular, up 2.6 cents from the previous week, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey.

In California, the average rose 4.4 cents to $2.535 a gallon Monday, ending a three-week string of declines.

Among the larger increases: Cleveland, where the average pump price climbed 13.5 cents to $2.229 a gallon, and Chicago, where the average spurted up 9.5 cents to $2.256. The average cost of gasoline in Los Angeles increased 6.1 cents to $2.499, while San Francisco saw a 5.2-cent boost to $2.662. In Seattle, the average pump price jumped 5.4 cents to $2.449.

A year earlier, the U.S. average was 15 cents lower at $2.04 a gallon and the California average was almost a penny lower at $2.521 a gallon.

Andrew Lipow, a Houston-based oil industry consultant, said the higher prices reflected a sharp reversal in the price of crude oil in the last two weeks.

The cost of crude oil, responsible for about half of the price of gasoline, began a long slide at the end of last year, and by mid-January the price was hovering around the $50-a-barrel mark.

Since then, however, oil prices have rebounded, and they recently threatened to top $60. On Monday, the cost of U.S. benchmark light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 28 cents to $58.74 a barrel.

“The pump price didn’t go down all the way to the lowest that would have been expected, and now you’re starting to see it rise with crude prices,” Lipow said.

“I know it’s bad news, but given that crude prices have rallied so much,” he said, “I’m not really expecting much more relief from this point on in gasoline prices.”

Nationwide, gasoline inventories are more than adequate for this time of year, he said. On the West Coast, where maintenance work has crimped the fuel output at several refineries, gasoline inventories are rising and fuel imports are supplementing supply.

California, however, is beginning the tricky transition to summer gasoline, which is more difficult and more expensive to produce, fuel experts say.

elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com