boutons_deux
01-06-2012, 10:01 AM
Forecast: 2012 Worst Year for Gas Prices
To the dismay of drivers across the country, 2011 went down in the record books as having the most expensive gasoline average ever, $3.513 for the year, 72 cents per gallon higher than 2010′s yearly average, according to GasBuddy.
Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst, projects that by Memorial Day, the national average will be between $3.86 to $4.13 per gallon, and that prices in 2012 will come close to or set new all-time highs. If that happens, drivers could spend $200 to $300 more for gas this year.
Inflation adjusted data from the Energy Department’s U.S. Energy Information Administration confirmed that 2011 was a record year. The real annual average for a gallon of regular gas last year hit $3.56, up from $2.90 in 2010, according to the EIA. From its data that begins in 1919, the previous record high was in 1981, at $3.45.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/01/06/399066/gas-prices-in-2012/
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Gasoline prices start the year at a high — and rising
In 2010, the year of the smallest recent gap between start-of-year prices and that year's peak, the rise was 14.5% nationally and 10% in California. That translated into a jump of 38.7 cents a gallon in the U.S.' average gasoline price and 30 cents in California's.
The biggest recent start-to-peak increase came in 2009. Nationally, the average gasoline price started the year at $1.684 a gallon and climbed 60% to $2.694, a jump of slightly more than a dollar. In California, the average price per gallon soared 75%, to $3.287 from $1.874.
And 2011 showed that when prices start out high, it doesn't take a huge percentage increase to add to consumer woes. Average prices rose 29% nationally in 2011, a jump of 89.5 cents a gallon to the year's peak of $3.965. California prices also rose 29% last year, for a 95-cent rise to the high of $4.257.
The AAA Fuel Gauge Report mirrors the trend shown by the Energy Department's weekly telephone survey of service stations. The averages reported by AAA are gathered daily by the Oil Price Information Service using credit card receipts from more than 100,000 outlets.
This year's gasoline prices could be significantly higher than in previous years, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
"Somewhere between the Grammys and the Oscars, the gasoline market and perhaps the crude market will trend considerably higher," Kloza wrote in his blog, Speaking of Oil.
Kloza cited three potential causes: "International worries about a second Arab Spring will combine with domestic concerns about U.S. refinery maintenance and the closure of at least two critical East Coast refineries" to push prices higher.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-prices-20120106,0,2326955.story
To the dismay of drivers across the country, 2011 went down in the record books as having the most expensive gasoline average ever, $3.513 for the year, 72 cents per gallon higher than 2010′s yearly average, according to GasBuddy.
Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst, projects that by Memorial Day, the national average will be between $3.86 to $4.13 per gallon, and that prices in 2012 will come close to or set new all-time highs. If that happens, drivers could spend $200 to $300 more for gas this year.
Inflation adjusted data from the Energy Department’s U.S. Energy Information Administration confirmed that 2011 was a record year. The real annual average for a gallon of regular gas last year hit $3.56, up from $2.90 in 2010, according to the EIA. From its data that begins in 1919, the previous record high was in 1981, at $3.45.
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/01/06/399066/gas-prices-in-2012/
===========
Gasoline prices start the year at a high — and rising
In 2010, the year of the smallest recent gap between start-of-year prices and that year's peak, the rise was 14.5% nationally and 10% in California. That translated into a jump of 38.7 cents a gallon in the U.S.' average gasoline price and 30 cents in California's.
The biggest recent start-to-peak increase came in 2009. Nationally, the average gasoline price started the year at $1.684 a gallon and climbed 60% to $2.694, a jump of slightly more than a dollar. In California, the average price per gallon soared 75%, to $3.287 from $1.874.
And 2011 showed that when prices start out high, it doesn't take a huge percentage increase to add to consumer woes. Average prices rose 29% nationally in 2011, a jump of 89.5 cents a gallon to the year's peak of $3.965. California prices also rose 29% last year, for a 95-cent rise to the high of $4.257.
The AAA Fuel Gauge Report mirrors the trend shown by the Energy Department's weekly telephone survey of service stations. The averages reported by AAA are gathered daily by the Oil Price Information Service using credit card receipts from more than 100,000 outlets.
This year's gasoline prices could be significantly higher than in previous years, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.
"Somewhere between the Grammys and the Oscars, the gasoline market and perhaps the crude market will trend considerably higher," Kloza wrote in his blog, Speaking of Oil.
Kloza cited three potential causes: "International worries about a second Arab Spring will combine with domestic concerns about U.S. refinery maintenance and the closure of at least two critical East Coast refineries" to push prices higher.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-prices-20120106,0,2326955.story