Gas Could Hit $3.75 by Spring

[irishbobcat]

COLUMBUS, Ohio   - Ohioans are paying 9 cents more for gas this week after prices broke through the $3 barrier for the first time in more than two years.

A survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express puts the state's average price for regular-grade gasoline at about $3.02 per gallon, up from $2.93 last Monday.

Last Wednesday, the average popped above the $3 mark for the first time since Oct. 11, 2008.

Some OPEC members have indicated the group doesn't plan to boost oil output in response to increased demand, which has been pushing fuel prices higher. Crude oil has jumped to near $92 a barrel.

In Ohio one year ago, motorists paid a lower $2.62, on average, for regular.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Natural gas is 50% the cost of gasoline and we have plenty of it.

[jay]

Gasoline was $3.09 at a station on Western Reserve Road on Christmas Day.

[kenneyjoe330]

This past Tuesday - 21 DEC - on the way to Erie PA - the gas station on Wilson Avenue near Coitsville Road the gas was 2.89 a gallon and the line was very long - in Erie it was $3.05, it was also the same price in Dover, Ohio the day before.  The station in North Jackson where I work gas was $2.99 a gallon - Prices sure vary. 

[jay]

Some of the gas stations have already dropped the price a little bit. 
The predictions are for much higher gasoline prices in the new year.

[jay]

It made me sick to pay $3.05 for some gas the other day.  This is why I'm going to take the WRTA bus more frequently.

[Why?Town]

Thius guy can forecast the price of gasoline for next year but when it coms to the price for next week "he says it could go either way".

yeah I trust him.

[irishbobcat]

Today's gasoline prices, while higher than normal for this time of year, could end up looking cheap come springtime, says one prominent oil analyst.

Pump prices nationwide for regular unleaded could hit an average of $3.25 to $3.75 a gallon early next year on higher crude oil prices and a seasonal rise in gasoline demand, Tom Kloza, senior oil analyst with the Oil Price Information Service predicts.

"My view of 2011 suggests that we are looking at the second fuel price apocalypse of the 21st century, commencing during a time line that will begin with spring training and end when the Cubs are written off as a baseball non-contender," Kloza writes.

As for whether U.S. pump prices will reach an average of $3 a gallon before the end of 2010, he says it could go either way.

The national average retail price for regular unleaded held overnight at $2.98 a gallon, while the Houston average rose a fraction of a cent to $2.80 a gallon, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

The national average has not surpassed $3 in more than two years, and has never hit the $3 mark in December. The all-time record is $4.11 a gallon, set in July 2008.

Prices will begin to rise early next year amid a surge of money moving into oil futures from investors anticipating the typical springtime rise in fuel demand, Kloza  observes.

" The spring move will be helped in part by fundamentals, but money flow is the performance-enhancing drug for prices," he writes.