The national average price for regular gasoline climbed 39 percent this year to more than $3.20 a gallon as refinery breakdowns cut production. Inventories are 7 percent below the five-year average, prompting some analysts to predict more increases.
``There is no mathematical way we can catch up'' to replenish supplies, said Mark Routt at Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Wakefield, Massachusetts. ``The pressure is going to be on through September.''
Prices rose 15 days in a row to a record $3.227 a gallon on May 23, AAA said on its Web site. Futures have jumped 47 percent this year, including a 5 percent rise this month. Retail gasoline typically lags behind changes in futures prices.
The nationwide average pump price for regular gasoline fell 0.2 cents yesterday, according to AAA. Adjusted for inflation, gasoline is more expensive than it was in March 1981, the previous high, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The $1.417 a gallon peak in March 1981 equals $3.20 in today's dollars.
Refinery shutdowns and rising demand may keep costs climbing until the Labor Day holiday in early September, when U.S. gasoline purchases usually taper off. Demand for gasoline rose 29,000 barrels to 9.43 million barrels a day last week, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, based on the four-week average.
``When it comes to people going on vacation, they are not going to let a couple of bucks stop them,'' said Robert Spiegel, vice president of Tuxedo, New York-based fuel wholesaler SOS Fuels, which supplies about 100 filling stations.
Travel Plans
AAA estimates 32.1 million people will travel by cars and trucks for the Memorial Day weekend, up 1.8 percent from last year. About 4.4 million will fly and about 1.9 million will go by train or bus.
A ConocoPhillips plant in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, is down after a power failure, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Valero Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. refiner, idled a gasoline- production unit at its McKee refinery near Sunray, Texas, this week. The McKee plant has been shut or at reduced capacity since a fire in February.
Illinois, where regular gasoline costs $3.515 a gallon on average, has the highest prices in the U.S., according to AAA, the largest motoring club in the U.S. New Jersey has the lowest at $2.954 a gallon.
In California, which often has the nation's most expensive fuel, motorists are bracing for higher costs, according to Mark Mitchell, owner of Coast Oil Co., a fuels distributor in San Jose.
``If we had a bad refinery problem we could see $5 gasoline in California,'' Mitchell said yesterday in an interview.
