Peninsula Daily News news sources
Gasoline prices on the North Olympic Peninsula are entering the $3.70-a-gallon range — and it’s still February.
Here and nationwide, motorists have seen the national average for regular gasoline rise above $3.50 a gallon in just three different years — but it has never happened this early.
And that has fueled speculation that the retail prices could hit $5 a gallon for the first time in parts of the United States — particularly in Western states like Washington and California that tack on substantial road taxes.
The national average hit $3.523 a gallon, the Energy Department said last week, up 4.1 cents from a week earlier.
Analysts said the early price shocker is likely a sign that pain at the pump will rise to some of the highest levels ever this year.
“This definitely sets the stage, potentially, for much higher prices later this year,” Brian L. Milne, refined-fuels editor for Telvent DTN, a commodity information services firm, told the Los Angeles Times.
“There’s a chance that the U.S. average tops $4 a gallon by June, with some parts of the country approaching $5 a gallon.”
Even in 2008, the year that average gasoline prices hit records above $4 nationally, and in California during the summer, the U.S. average didn’t climb above $3.50 until April 21, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of service stations.
The $3.50 mark was breached last year, but not until March 6.
This time, the dubious milestone was hit weeks before prices usually rise because of refineries typically shutting down for spring maintenance and weeks before the prices rise again when states switch from less expensive winter blends of gasoline to more complicated and more expensive summer blends.
There are plenty of reasons for the high prices — and lots of reasons to expect a big price surge in the spring, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Service.
“Early February crude oil prices are higher than they’ve ever been on similar calendar dates through the years, and the price of crude sets the standard for gasoline prices,” Kloza said.
Oil rose to near $103 a barrel Friday in Asia, and benchmark U.S. crude was up 48 cents to $102.79 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The latter traded at about $96 a barrel at the first of this month.
Several refineries have been mothballed in recent months, Kloza said, and some of those refineries “represented the key to a smooth spring transition from winter-to-spring gasoline.”
The annual change in gasoline formulas is mandated by pollution-fighting regulations.
Some cities, including Los Angeles and New York, already are closing in on $4 a gallon, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, a website that tracks gasoline prices.
