Whats up 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 have been generally increasing since then. EIA analysis of the petroleum market points to the following as main contributors to the increases in retail gasoline prices since the start of 2009: • The cost of crude oil to refiners — Spot prices for crude oil bottomed out at the end of December 2008 at around $30 per barrel, and then increased to around $60 per barrel by mid-May. • The balance between gasoline supply and demand — Gasoline production and inventories have tightened relative to demand, putting additional upward pressure on prices as refiners seek to improve their margins on gasoline. The U.S. average pump price for regular-grade gasoline, which reached $2.69 per gallon on June 22, fell to $2.61 per gallon on July 6, possibly due to relatively high U.S. gasoline stocks and weak gasoline demand. Economic conditions in the United States and the rest of th
