Industry News: Gas prices to hit $4 mark this Spring

[Blake Noble]

G. Noble

Editor/Reporter

CheersandGears.com

Friday, 10th February, 2012

If you're waiting for the sting of high gas prices to go away soon, you may be in for one hell of a long wait. Gas prices are back at a national average of $3.48 a gallon -- a whole 36 cents more than the average during February of last year -- and are set to climb an entire 60 cents or more by May.

Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information service expects prices to top out at $4.05 a gallon, although some markets could see prices go even further beyond that. "I think it's going to be a chaotic spring, with huge price increases in some places," said Kloza.

Of course, gas prices do tend to rise somewhat going into the warmer months because of increased demand. Refiners also switch to seasonal formulas which can tack on an extra 15 cents a gallon according to Brian Milne of Televent DTN, an energy tracking service.

It's been about five years since we last witnessed national average prices reach these levels. In 2008, average prices climbed to a record-setting $4.11 a gallon. We came dangerously close to toppling that record last April with the national average going up to $3.98, but prices starting dropping soon thereafter.

With the current economic climate in the U.S. unstable, we can't help but to wonder what effects these near record prices will ultimately bare.

Source: USA Today

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[G. David Felt]

Oil Companies refine and ship more gas out of the country, they are clearly do this for their own profits and the free market will support this, but at a brutal cost to the majority of americans.

[loki]

we have an economy/nation built on debt...selling to ourselves will only propagate this debt, once prices rocket, our remaining wealth that has been made will leave quickly, and what we have left will only be what we haven't taken from the land yet, or that can't leave/move in an efficient manner.

i see another +10% increase in commodity prices coming.

[Daryl Z71]

I see more layoffs and Economic Turmoil.

[§carlet §wordfish]

I see a bad moon rising.

[67impss]

I see myself building my diesel project soon like in the next 6 months.

[ocnblu]

Stupid. No reason for it. At least if it happens and things continue to go well @ work, I'll be driving a company econobox 4 days back and forth, then break out the Jeep the other 3 days... which will prevent me from panicking unnecessarily and trading it for something I really do not want.

[Robert Hall]

Meh....been there, done that in '08.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Remember, it's a presidential election year. If the incumbent wants to remain in office, he better think real hard about how this will impact the voters he's relying on

[Drew Dowdell]

....because he sets the prices.....?

[67impss]

Hahaha so true Olds he can't do a thing but open strategic oil reserves to lower gas by just a few tenths. Meanwhile the Iranians can raise havoc with just 2 or 3 PT boats. But if it goes up very high it'll sink him.

[Drew Dowdell]

I wonder how much of it is psychological though (my guess is a lot) I drive a 14mpg car and fill up 3 - 4 times a month. So at most this is a $36 increase per month in my fuel costs. For someone driving a Cruze Eco, the difference in fuel costs per month are about $10.

[loki]

olds, he runs the "free world"... obviously he can set the prices.

though he did say he wanted gas $5 and above, right?

[ocnblu]

It's OK though, even at $5/gallon, he could afford to drive that "sick" GT500 he tried out at the D.C. Auto Show.

I did think it was a cool thing to do when he only visited displays of the Big 3 and snubbed foreign brands... haha they were pissed.

[Robert Hall]

I wonder how much of it is psychological though (my guess is a lot) I drive a 14mpg car and fill up 3 - 4 times a month. So at most this is a $36 increase per month in my fuel costs. For someone driving a Cruze Eco, the difference in fuel costs per month are about $10.

Let's see, I drive an SUV that gets 16-18mpg and I fill up once a week....so at $3/gallon it's about $45/week, $4/gallon it's about $60/week....$15 difference...about 3 cups of coffee. Not a big deal to me.

[Drew Dowdell]

well, yea... I was basing my estimates off a 50 cent increase since we're at $3.45 today without panicking, $4.00 doesn't seem bad except for psychological reasons.

[PurdueGuy]

Predictions of gas prices beyond a week or so have been about as accurate as weather predictions beyond a week or so. How many articles can we look up that would say we should be at $5+/gal or more by now?

[daves87rs]

It gets hard to be a car lover when it starts to get hard to afford them..

And since the government won't step in- the talk about 5 dollar gas is very real.....

[ocnblu]

These articles come out from time to time to put a chill on America's red hot love for trucks, SUVs and horsepower in general. They are a conspiracy, I tell you!

[daves87rs]

I think it's more than that ocn...

[G. David Felt]

Personally We need to demand that the government take away the speculation that Ex Prez Bush allowed. Speculation in oil and gas is hurting not helping this country. Only a few really get ahead on this.

Speculation is bad for this country and the world. We do not need to have the rich few use the stock market as their own personal gambling casino.

[67impss]

Yeah we gotta wake up to China's growing demand, soon the world production will be eclipsed by demand. No matter how much reserves we have they will not stay within our borders it will be sold to the highest bidders. We do need a strategic national energy policy and very soon lest we end up with future collapse and Martial Law.

[SAmadei]

It gets hard to be a car lover when it starts to get hard to afford them..

And since the government won't step in- the talk about 5 dollar gas is very real.....

Just build a woodgasifier and start driving around for free.

I foresee the gas price spector coming up everytime our economy starts to move in the right direction... and then stumbling... ripples in China/Inda... gas falling slightly... economy ramping up... China/India economy ramping up... gas prices go up... economy stumbling cycle for quite some time, at least until we can uncouple our economy from the problem. I'm not suggesting getting off gasoline, but some other solution.