NEW YORK: A surprise surge in gasoline prices is taking some of the fun out of summer.
The national average for a gallon of gas at the pump has climbed to $3.67, a rise of 34 cents since July 1. An increase in crude oil prices and problems with refineries and pipelines in the West Coast and Midwest, including a fire in California, are mostly to blame.
Ohio has seen one of the highest spikes, climbing an average 53 cents a gallon.
Analysts don’t expect gas prices to get as high as they did in April, when 10 states passed $4 a gallon and the U.S. average topped out at $3.94. But this is still unwelcome news in a sluggish economy, since any extra money that goes to fill gas tanks doesn’t get spent on movies and dinners out.
The rising prices could also pressure President Barack Obama in the heat of his re-election campaign.
But analysts and economists downplay the political implications, saying prices for crude oil and wholesale gasoline are set on financial exchanges around the world based on supply and demand and expectations about how those factors may change.
The price at the pump in the United States fell more than 60 cents a gallon during the spring as the global economy slowed and turmoil in the Middle East seemed to subside.
But crude oil is climbing again, rising to $94 a barrel from a low of $78 in late June. Production outages in South Sudan and the North Sea, Western sanctions that have cut the flow of Iranian oil, Iran’s threat to block tankers passing through the vital Strait of Hormuz, and fears that violence in Syria could escalate into a wider regional conflict have driven up oil prices.
Seasonal factors are also sending prices higher. Gas usually costs more in the late spring and summer because refiners have to make more expensive blends of gasoline to meet clean air rules and because the summer driving season boosts demand.
In the past few weeks, pipelines serving Wisconsin and Illinois ruptured, refineries were shut down unexpectedly because of equipment problems in Illinois and Indiana, and a fire broke out at a refinery in Richmond, Calif.