Gas prices on the rise

GLENDALE — Just as motorists were getting used to paying less than $2 at the gas pump, prices have begun creeping up.

The price of regular gas has increased a penny per day since last week and, in some areas of Glendale and Burbank, gas prices have hit the $2 mark, said Marie Montgomery, an Automobile Club of Southern California spokeswoman.

Gas prices in Glendale and Burbank ranged from $1.84 to $2 Thursday and are likely to go up, she said.

The average price of regular gas throughout the state is $1.93, which is up from $1.79 last month, she said.

But gas prices typically drop every year to their lowest point in December and begin increasing when oil refineries shut down for maintenance in order to make their summer oil blend, Montgomery said.

Oil refineries push out the last of their winter oil blend during their maintenance period, she said.

“Sometimes the supply can get a little tight, so that’s when you see gas prices go up,” Montgomery said.

The summer oil blend is more expensive to produce than the winter blend because it is made from oxygenated ethanol. The summer blend was designed to burn cleaner in hotter temperatures in order to curtail air pollution, she said.

Investors also can push the price of gas up if they see more people are buying gasoline, Montgomery said.

Demand for gasoline generally goes up in spring, she said.

Depending on the market and investors, $4-a-gallon gasoline could return this summer, Montgomery said.

“Anything is possible,” she said.

Gas station owner Fayez Hamoui has seen gas prices go up every day this week at his Mobil station in Burbank.

He said he sympathizes with motorists who come into his gas station and express their frustrations to him about increasing gas prices.

Some gas stations change fuel prices several times a day, he said. But Hamoui doesn’t.

“For me, personally, I wait until the last gas is pumped before I change the price,” he said.

Gas stations often post different gas prices from city to city, Montgomery said.

“It basically comes down to competition,” she said.

Gas distributors generally determine what price will be set in a certain area based on the brand of gasoline, cost of rent, volume of traffic and whether a gas station is close to a freeway.

Glendale resident Paul Miranda said he is tired of paying high gas prices.

“They dropped, but they are slowly going up,” he said

Miranda is a delivery driver and has to pay for his own gas.

When gas prices were high, he was losing money as a driver. But the recent drop in gas prices has allowed him to earn more.

“I am very worried about gas prices going up because I work by the mileage,” Miranda said.