Pump prices show slight increase for second week
What a difference a year makes.
Retail gasoline prices barely budged for the second straight week, a year after they had already begun to soar toward records at $4.588 a gallon in California and $4.114 nationally.
The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in California rose less than half a penny to $2.340, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of filling stations Monday. That was $1.506 a gallon below the year-earlier price.
Nationwide, the average gasoline price climbed less than a penny to $2.059 a gallon, which was $1.449 below the average at this time last year.
The small increase comes at a time when some experts are predicting the cheapest summer driving season since 2005. The gap between current prices and the record 2008 surge is expected to continue to grow in the next several weeks.
Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, predicted that the national average would peak at about $2.20 a gallon nationally and $2.50 a gallon in California.
“It’s not going to be anything like what we have seen over the last few years. There won’t be a repeat of 2008,” said Kloza, adding that the nation’s fuel supplies “are very well stocked and demand is still very low.”
The prediction came a week after the Energy Department said it was expecting the average price of a gallon of gasoline around the U.S. to reach $2.23 a gallon this summer.
For diesel fuel, the difference between current prices and 2008 levels also will grow, although not for good reasons, Kloza said.
He said diesel prices would soon drop below the cost of a gallon of gasoline, a sign that the nation’s factories, farms and long-haul freight systems were continuing to suffer from the global recession.
On Monday, diesel slipped a penny to $2.34 a gallon in California and eight-tenths of a cent to $2.221 a gallon nationally. Last year, the average price of a gallon of diesel fuel topped out at a record $5.027 a gallon just before the Memorial Day weekend. Nationally, the diesel average reached $4.764 a gallon in July.
Crude oil for May delivery fell $4.45, or 8.8%, to $45.88 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the dollar gained strength against foreign currencies and amid signs that the economy has yet to show consistent strength.
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