California gasoline prices rise, bucking national trend
Retail gasoline prices dropped nationally over the last week and crude prices fell on Monday because of concerns that the European debt crisis is spreading and will dampen demand for energy products. A strong U.S. dollar also weakened investor interest in putting money in oil, analysts said.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. fell three tenths of a cent to $2.725, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of filling stations.
In California, an average gallon of regular gasoline rose 4.4 cents to $3.068, the Energy Department said. There was some good news for California drivers, however, as wholesale prices for unfinished clean-burning gasoline mandated in the state fell from a recent high of $2.36 a gallon to $2.15 a gallon on Monday, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in New Jersey.
Kloza said the decline in wholesale prices should mean some relief at the pump.
“I think we’ll see oil and retail gasoline prices wobble lower in the next few weeks,” Kloza said.
Crude oil futures for July delivery fell seven cents to $71.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in part because “the dollar has been outperforming all major world currencies” in recent weeks, Kloza said.
