Gasoline price rises expected to end soon
Average gasoline prices rose during the last week, topping $3 a gallon in California, the Energy Department said Monday. But the sharp run-up is ending, analysts said, as wholesale fuel costs have declined and oil futures have retreated to their lowest level in three weeks.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California climbed 2.6 cents to $3.005 and is up $1.195, or more than 66%, since the end of 2008, the Energy Department said, based on a weekly survey of filling stations. The U.S. average rose 1.9 cents to $2.691 a gallon, up nearly 69% in the same period.
A separate daily survey by AAA showed the average U.S. gas price falling Monday for the first time in 54 days, down 0.3 of a cent overnight to $2.69 a gallon. In California, the average fell 0.2 of a cent to $3.027.
Motorist Eric Ott of Valley Glen had filled his 2007 Jeep Liberty for $2.89 a gallon at a Costco on Thursday. Ott drove past stations Monday selling regular gas for $2.95 to $3.05.
“What’s happened since last Thursday to make the price rise that much? Nothing. It’s disturbing,” Ott said.
Relief is on the way. Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, a national system of price-reporting websites, said that unfinished gasoline on the wholesale markets dropped by about 26 cents since late last week.
“It will take a number of days for any decrease to show up at the pumps, but prices should be going down,” DeHaan said.
Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., said that $3-a-gallon gasoline in California “was like seeing the Florida Marlins in first place in Major League Baseball. You know it’s going to be over soon.”
Kloza said that the unfinished wholesale price for California’s more expensive grade of cleaner-burning gasoline dropped from about $2.25 a gallon last week to about $1.92 a gallon Monday.
“You should see numbers below $3 a gallon out there by the end of the week,” he said.
Crude oil futures for July delivery fell $2.62 to close at $66.93 a barrel. Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., called it a return to sanity for the markets at a time when oil is plentiful and demand is weak.
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