Gasoline price analysts say consumers should expect higher prices at the pump for the next few weeks, based on increasing wholesale prices. As Gannett Louisiana reports, GasBuddy.com says a rally in gasoline markets should show up as pump-price increases of perhaps 10 cents a gallon next week, and another 10 cents the following week.
“There’s been a significant spike in wholesale gas prices,” said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy in the Southeast. That spike began Feb. 2 and continued Thursday. Wholesale prices increased 10 to 27 cents, coast to coast, on Wednesday.
Laskoski says Louisiana increases have been in line with the rest of the country. The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded nationally has risen 32 cents over the past month. In Louisiana, prices matched that rise, climbing from an average of $1.84 a gallon last month to $2.16 on Thursday.
Laskoski cited stress at the nation’s refineries as the impetus for price increases. Refineries are usually down in February for maintenance, as the nation transitions from winter- to summer-grade gasoline. Refineries in the Northeast have suffered because of severe winter weather; and the United Steelworkers union has had work stoppages at a dozen or more refineries. The contract for USW workers at the Valero refinery at Meraux in St. Bernard Parish expires on Sunday.
According to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the average price of a gallon of regular in Baton Rouge today is $2.15, up a penny from one day ago, eight cents from a week ago and 35 cents from a month ago. Despite the recent price climb, gasoline remains far lower than its $3.22 a gallon price in January 2014.
