Pump prices will average $3.70 per gallon this spring and summer with a barrel of oil averaging $102 this year, the U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday.
Gas prices are posted in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Monday. Pump prices have jumped an average of 39 cents per gallon since the Libyan uprising began in mid-February, forcing motorists to pay an additional $146 million per day for the same amount of fuel. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)Conflict in the Middle East and fighting in Libya prompted government analysts to raise expectations for gasoline prices by 50 cents a gallon for the peak driving season in the Energy Information Administration’s new monthly short-term energy outlook. The EIA boosted its per-barrel oil estimate by $9 for the year.
EIA sees pump prices peaking at $3.75 a gallon in June. But its report says there is “significant uncertainty surrounding the forecast” and pump prices could spike above $4 this summer, which would threaten the all-time high of $4.11 a gallon reached in July 2008.
On Tuesday, the national average for a gallon of regular hit $3.52, according to AAA, Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That’s 40 cents higher than a month ago and 76 cents above a year ago. After settling at $105.44 a barrel on Monday, benchmark crude lost about 40 cents in Tuesday trading.
The Energy Department expects world oil markets to tighten over the next two years with the average oil price rising to $105 a barrel in 2012. It said uncertainty about oil production in North Africa and the Middle East, the world’s largest oil-producing region, is a major factor.