Wednesday December 25th, 2024 11:13AM

Gainesville gas prices increasing, following national trend

By by Ken Stanford
UNDATED - The blackout, continued unrest in Iraq, and a broken pipeline in Arizona have led to a big price jump at the gas pump.

But analyst Trilby Lundberg says with those crises over, gas prices should fall back. However, other analysts say they could rise another nickel a gallon before Labor Day, which is next Monday.

The average retail price for a gallon of gas shot up more than 15 cents nationwide over the past two weeks. It's the biggest two-week jump since the Lundberg Survey began keeping track 50 years ago.

In Gainesville, prices are up 12-to-15 cents per gallon over the past two weeks. Regular unleaded is selling in the range of $1.55 to $1.61 per gallon in most places, with the highest octane gasoline priced at 20 cents more.

The survey of eight-thousand service stations showed the average of all grades of gasoline, including taxes, reached nearly a dollar-75 a gallon on Friday. That's just short of the survey's all-time high weighted average of a dollar-76 set March 21st.

Self-serve regular gasoline showed an average weighted price of a dollar-72 a gallon. Mid-grade gas averaged a dollar-81, and premium a dollar-90.

Lundberg blames the recent blackout, which caused refineries in the East to shut down temporarily. That and the Arizona pipeline break disrupted supplies.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
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