By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
March 12, 2010 The price of gasoline continues to move higher, establishing a new high for the year on Friday. The national average price of self-serve regular is $2.783 a gallon, up more than six cents from last Friday, according to AAA.
The price is nearly 14 cents a gallon higher than it was a month ago. The price of diesel fuel is $2.919, up more than two cents a gallon in the last week.
The main push behind prices at the pump remains the market price of crude oil, which has pushed back above the $80 a barrel mark. Analysts say market fundamentals - supply and demand - aren't playing much of a role in the prices consumers pay.
The U.S. is still swimming in crude oil, for example. The latest figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show commercial crude oil stockpiles were up by 1.4 million barrels at 343 million barrels in the last week. But gasoline stockpiles fell by 2.9 billion barrels, which in the short term could help push gas prices even higher.
"Additionally, seasonal factors are at play as well, with refineries in the process of switching over to summer blended fuels and investors counting on the potential for increased vehicle travel as the weather improves," said Andrew Delmege, AAA's manager of regulatory affairs. "This can be clearly seen in the recent trend in wholesale gasoline prices."
But Delmege notes gasoline supplies remain vast and demand, while improving, remains somewhat soft as well. These factors alone, he says, will likely keep prices from drifting dramatically higher in the short term.
The states with the highest average price of gas this week are:
Hawaii ($3.457)
Alaska ($3.412)
California ($3.079)
Washington ($2.984)
New York ($2.929)
Connecticut ($2.910)
Oregon ($2.881)
Illinois ($2.852)
District of Columbia
($2.843)
Florida ($2.841)
The states with the lowest average price of gas this week are:
Missouri ($2.608)
New Jersey ($2.626)
South Carolina
($2.646)
Wyoming ($2.647)
Oklahoma ($2.658)
Texas ($2.660)
Colorado ($2.670)
Mississippi ($2.684)
Virginia ($2.687)
Tennessee ($2.691)
