Gasoline Prices Rise For Second Time Since June in Survey
The average price of regular gasoline at U.S. pumps rose for the second time since June, climbing 13.2 cents in the past two weeks to $2.32 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.
The survey covers the period ended Feb. 20 and is based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, California-based company. Prices are still $1.08 lower than a year ago.
The rise in pump prices is due to strikes at U.S. refineries, in combination with the Feb. 18 explosion at Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Torrance refinery in Southern California, according to Trilby Lundberg, the president of Lundberg Survey.
The rebound marks an end to the unprecedented decline in retail gasoline that brought $2 gasoline back to filling stations across the U.S. last year.
“Unless we have another jump in crude oil prices or a worsening of labor issues and refinery outages, price increases will be small from here,” Lundberg said in a telephone interview on Sunday.
The highest price for gasoline in the lower 48 states among the markets surveyed was in Los Angeles, at $2.91 a gallon, Lundberg said. The lowest price was in Salt Lake City, Utah, where customers paid an average $1.91 a gallon. Regular gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon in Long Island, New York.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark priced in Cushing, Oklahoma, fell $1.35, or 2.6 percent, to $50.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the two weeks to Feb. 20.
The United Steelworkers called on four more plants to join the biggest strike since 1980. The work stoppage now includes 12 refineries and three other facilities. The union has rejected seven contract offers from Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which is representing companies including Exxon and Chevron Corp.
U.S. refineries ran at 88.7% of capacity in the week ended Feb. 13, down from 90% a week earlier, EIA data show.
Delta Air Lines Inc.’s Trainer oil refinery in Pennsylvania was working to restart units on Friday that were affected by “challenging weather,” plant spokesman Adam Gattuso said by phone. Earlier in the week, Exxon’s Torrance site in California shut multiple units after a blast at the fluid catalytic cracker, two people familiar with the situation said on Feb. 18.
Refineries across the country, from Shell’s Anacortes plant in Washington to Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ Philadelphia refinery, have meanwhile shut units for maintenance, according to the Louisville, Kentucky-based energy data provider Genscape Inc.
