Whats up, and down, with gasoline prices lately?
After the dramatic spike and then drop in gasoline prices in 2008, retail gasoline prices bottomed out in late December, and generally increased through 2009. EIA analysis of the petroleum market points to the cost of crude oil to refiners as the main contributor to the increases in retail gasoline prices since the start of 2009. Spot prices for crude oil bottomed out at the end of December 2008 at around $30 per barrel. They increased to around $72 per barrel in mid-June, dipped to around $60 in mid-July, and then climbed up to around $80 per barrel in the third week of October where they hovered through mid-November then dropped down to the mid $70 per barrel in December. Gasoline production and inventories tightened relative to demand in the first half of the year, which put additional upward pressure on gasoline prices as refiners sought to improve their margins on gasoline.
