Motorists are feeling sticker shock at the gas pump.
The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline rose to $3.67 per gallon Friday, a 12-cent jump in the past week. This current price is seven cents more expensive than one month ago and 23 cents more expensive than the same day last year, Wilmington-based AAA Mid-Atlantic reported.
As of Sunday, the average price for regular ranged from $3.66 in Dover to $3.69 in the Wilmington area.
The national average has risen for 12 days in a row, but remains 12 cents lower than the peak price this year of $3.79 on February 27. The national average is still 44 cents below the all-time daily high of $4.11 a gallon on July 17, 2008.
However, it seems likely that consumers will face increased retail prices in the coming weeks.
Gas prices apparently dropped to a summer-low of $3.47 on July 7, near the same date as the seasonal low price in recent years. In 2011 the national average bottomed at $3.54 per gallon on June 30. In 2012 it reached as low as $3.33 on July 2. The national average rose 17 cents per gallon in July 2011 and 16 cents in July 2012. The price this year has already jumped 12 cents in the first 15 days of July.
Recent gas price increases have been blamed pon global crude oil prices. U.S. crude oil prices have jumped 17 percent in four weeks.
Several factors have contributed to the surge – reported production issues at North American refineries, continued tension in Egypt and the Middle East, a drop in U.S. Inventories and positive U.S. unemployment and factory data. Crude oil settled at $108.05 at Friday’s close, up nearly two percent on the week.
Inventories are now 10.4 million barrels below last year, but they 15.3 million barrels above 2011 numbers.
The four-week average demand level is 9.054 million barrels a day, compared with 8.848 million last year.
“Motorists are undoubtedly in ‘sticker shock’ this week as prices at the pump have jumped double-digits in the past week,” said Jana L. Tidwell, public affairs specialist for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Higher gas prices can be attributed to higher crude oil prices due to several factors – unrest in Egypt that could threaten the Suez Canal, production outages and disruptions in Libya, Iraq and Nigeria, as well as increased demand due to summer vacationers depleting U.S. crude inventories.”
Analysts believe gas prices will range from $3.45 to $3.75 per gallon this summer, with the high end of that range quickly approaching and perhaps topping the 2013 peak price of $3.79 per gallon reached.
The Associated Press reported tighter inventories also reduced the price gap between crude oil produced in North Dakota and transported by rail to refineries in Delaware City and elsewhere.
