Retail Gasoline Little Changed, Lundberg Survey Shows
The average price for regular gasoline at pumps was little changed in the past three weeks, gaining just 0.35 cent to $3.691 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.
The survey covers the period ended June 6. It is based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, California-based company.
The average retail price is 5.26 cents higher than a year ago, Lundberg said. Gasoline has fallen 3.14 cents since peaking this year at $3.722 on May 2.
“The main crude oil grades fluctuated rather gently during the period, and on the gasoline side in the U.S., we’ve seen remarkably high refinery capacity utilization, plus an addition to stocks that normally decline this time of year,” Lundberg Survey President Trilby Lundberg said in a telephone interview.
The highest price in the lower 48 states among markets surveyed was in San Francisco, at $4.14 a gallon. The lowest was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where customers paid an average of $3.33 a gallon. Regular gasoline averaged $3.87 a gallon on Long Island, New York, and $4.10 in Los Angeles.
U.S. gasoline production slipped 0.5% in the week ended May 30 to 9.48 million barrels a day, the highest level seasonally since at least 1983, according to data compiled by the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistical arm. Stockpiles of the motor fuel climbed 210,000 barrels to 211.8 million.
