Florida gas up 9 cents but should drop

Prices expected to climb in spring

Heavy holiday travel demand drove gas prices up 9 cents a gallon in Florida over the past week, and while January should bring a short respite, travel club AAA is warning consumers to expect prices to climb sharply this spring.

The average price for a gallon of unleaded regular was $2.44 in Florida and $2.49 nationwide. Nationally, gas hasn’t been this expensive on Jan. 2 since 2014, when prices were still above $3, AAA said.

Wholesale oil prices above $60 a barrel and a surge in the number of motorists traveling for the holidays contributed to the turnaround in pump prices, which had fallen 18 cents a gallon on average in Florida over the 45 days before Christmas, the travel club said.

On Dec. 26, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange exceeded $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015. The increase was sparked by a pipeline explosion in Libya and continued struggles restoring service to a pipeline in the North Sea. Wholesale oil prices remained above $60 in midday trading Tuesday.

Consumers should see lower prices as demand slacks off in January, AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said. “After the holidays, gasoline demand takes a sharp turn lower, because fewer people take extended road trips,” Jenkins said.

But motorists should brace for increases of 30 to 70 cents a gallon when refineries undergo their annual conversion to more expensive warm weather petroleum blends, Jenkins said.

In South Florida, Broward County motorists were paying $2.49 on Monday, 6 cents more than the previous week. Palm Beach County’s per-gallon price

averaged $2.55, a nickel more than the week before. And Miami-Dade’s $2.50 average was a 2-cent hike over the previous week.

A check of the pricecomparison website and app GasBuddy.com revealed that $2.29 was the lowest price Broward motorists could hope to find without a wholesale club membership, and that was at Exxon on North Federal Highway in Lighthouse Point. This Exxon was the only station in Broward with a reported price below $2.30.

The lowest price in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties was $2.33 at Exxon on North Military Trail and Community Drive in West Palm Beach and at Rocket Fuel at West Flagler Street and Northwest 57th Avenue in West Miami, according to GasBuddy.