The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County Wednesday set a record for the 12th consecutive day, rising 1.7 cents to $6.311, extending its streak of increases to 13 consecutive days.
The average price has risen 29.3 cents over the past 13 days, including 3.3 cents Tuesday, according to figures from the AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. It is 19.7 cents higher than one week ago, 47.4 cents more than one month ago and $2.096 greater than one year ago.
The average price has risen $1.555 since Russia's invasion of Ukraine Feb. 24 "sent shock waves through the oil market that have kept oil costs elevated," said Andrew Gross, an AAA national public relations manager.
Crude oil costs account for slightly more than half of the pump price, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The rest of the price includes the other components of gasoline, production costs, distribution costs, overhead costs for all involved in production, distribution and sales, taxes and carbon offset fees in California paid by the refineries.
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The national average price rose 3.6 cents to $4.955, its 12th consecutive record and 16th in 17 days. It has increased 36.2 cents over the past 17 days, including 5.4 cents Tuesday.
"After a blistering week of gas prices jumping in nearly every town, city, state and area possible, more bad news is on the horizon. It now appears not if, but when, we'll hit that psychologically critical $5 national average," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which provides real-time gas price information from more than 150,000 stations.
"Gasoline inventories continue to decline even with demand softening due to high prices, a culmination of less refining capacity than we had prior to COVID and strong consumption, a situation that doesn't look to improve drastically anytime soon."
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