Gasoline Spikes Up to $3.09 a Gallon at Some Local Stations
Posted on: Wednesday, 28 June 2006, 00:00 CDT
By Susan Erler, The Times, Munster, Ind.
Jun. 27--Gas prices shot up on Monday, spiking by 10 cents a gallon or more at some local stations. Retailers across Lake and Porter counties posted prices of between $3 and $3.09 for a gallon of regular gasoline, up from $2.93 recorded in the Gary area on Sunday by the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.
No single factor explains the hike, AAA spokesman Greg Seiter said, but the upcoming July 4th holiday is a likely player.
"The marketplace could be preparing for holiday travel," Seiter said.
AAA "is anticipating this to be the busiest 4th of July travel period ever," Seiter said, with 40.7 million Americans expected to travel 50 or more miles from home, a 1.2 percent increase over last year.
The Luke Oil chain, with 15 stations in Northwest Indiana, held prices to $2.89 a gallon for regular gasoline on Monday, vice-president Tom Collins Jr. said.
But that could change as July 4 gets closer.
"The oil companies raise my cost every year at Christmas and 4th of July," Collins said. "The cost just starts ramping up. It has to do with supply and demand."
Monday's hike in gas prices likely signalled the start of what could be a summer-long upsurge, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with OPISNet.com.
"We're probably coming out of a six-week period that represented 'as good as it gets,'" Kloza said.
"Over the next 70-day period we're going to see mostly updrafts across the country," with prices nationally going to between $3.05 and $3.30 for a gallon of regular gasoline, Kloza said.
Prices should level off by early winter, falling to about $2.25 a gallon by Thanksgiving, Kloza added.
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Source: The Times
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