The expectations that gas prices will keep climbing toward $4 as the summer driving season approaches come true as retail prices pushed past a record high $3.40 a gallon Thursday
The expectations that gas prices will keep climbing toward $4 as the summer driving season approaches come true as retail prices pushed past a record high $3.40 a gallon Thursday.
At the pump, the average national price of a gallon of unleaded gas rose 1.9 cents overnight to $3.418 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel fuel also hit a new record of $4.146 a gallon after jumping 1.7 cents overnight, the survey said.
With gas reaching another milestone, analysts are questioning whether consumers, who have already curtailed their driving over the past month, will cut back further in response to rising prices. They point to the trends seen last year in California; when prices soared past $3.40 a gallon in the state last November, demand plummeted by 3.7 percent.
This expectation of higher summer demand is boosting gas prices now, but prices are also rising because refiners are switching over from winter grade gasoline to the more expensive but less polluting fuel they're required to sell in the summer. That has pulled supplies lower lately as refiners try to sell off all of their winter fuel. Short supplies of key blending components needed for summer gasoline are exacerbating the problem.
In other Nymex trading Thursday, May gasoline futures rose 1.88 cents to settle at a record $2.9578 a gallon after earlier rising to a trading record of $2.9749 a gallon. May heating oil futures fell 1.56 cents to settle at $3.2674 a gallon. May natural gas futures fell 5 cents to settle at $10.383 per 1,000 cubic feet.
