Summer Surge
Higher Gas Prices Blamed on Fire at Calif. Refinery, Crude Costs, Facility Problems
A surprise surge in gasoline prices is taking some of the fun out of summer.
The national average for a gallon of gas at the pump jumped to $3.67, a rise of 10 cents since last week and 34 cents since July 1. An increase in crude oil prices and problems with refineries and pipelines in the West Coast and Midwest, including a fire in California, are mostly to blame.
New Mexico’s average price per gallon also jumped a dime in the past week to $3.40 as Albuquerque’s average price rose 13 cents to $3.29, Santa Fe up 9 cents to $3.41 and Las Cruces rose 6 cents to $3.28.
Analysts don’t expect gas prices to get as high as they did in April, when 10 states passed $4 a gallon and the U.S. average topped out at $3.94. But this is still unwelcome news in this sluggish economy, since any extra money that goes to fill gas tanks doesn’t get spent on movies and dinners out.
The price at the pump in the U.S. fell more than 60 cents per gallon during the spring as the global economy slowed and turmoil in the Middle East seemed to subside.
But crude oil is climbing again, rising to $94 a barrel from a low of $78 in late June. Production outages in South Sudan and the North Sea, Western sanctions that have cut the f low of Iranian oil, Iran’s threat to block tankers passing through the vital Strait of Hormuz, and fears that the violence in Syria could escalate into a wider regional conf lict have driven up oil prices.
In the past few weeks, pipelines serving Wisconsin and Illinois ruptured, refineries were shut down unexpectedly because of equipment problems in Illinois and Indiana, and a blaze broke out at a refinery in Richmond, Calif.
Gasoline prices shot up more than 50 cents in the span of a month in Indiana, Vermont, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin. And California drivers have seen gas climb 13 cents since the fire Monday.