Bloggers,
It got very, very close to $3 for a gallon of unleaded regular in Kitsap a couple weeks ago. Since then, the average price for a gallon of unleaded slipped and today was at $2.87.
Here’s an explainer why. Rachel
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices climbed more than 5 percent,
surpassing $70 a barrel Wednesday after a government report said
the nation’s gasoline supply dropped unexpectedly and demand
increased from last year.
Benchmark crude for November delivery added $3.39 to $70.10 a
barrel in late trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent
crude rose $3.06 to $68.55 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in
London.
The Energy Information Administration put U.S. gasoline stockpiles
at 211.5 million barrels last week, a drop of 0.8 percent from the
prior week. It also said demand for gasoline over the four weeks
ended Sept. 25 was 5.4 percent higher than last year.
The price of oil, which is used to make gasoline, rose as investors
placed some final bets on the last day of the quarter. Crude prices
have waffled between $59 and $75 during the past three months, but
equities markets surged during the quarter as investors became
increasingly confident that the economy was healing.
Despite the drop last week, gasoline supplies are still considered
to be well above normal. They’re nearly 11 percent higher than they
were last year, and much of last week’s drop came as many U.S.
refiners cut back on their operations.
Petroleum supplies have been growing most of the year as trucking
companies shipped fewer goods, and a growing number of unemployed
workers kept their cars out of the morning commute.
“There’s nothing inspiring about oil demand right now,” said Tom
Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information
Service.
Crude supplies grew more than expected last week, according to the
government report, and they’ve now swelled to 11.4 percent above
what they were last year.
It’s unclear when Americans will regain their appetite for
petroleum.
Though Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession is
“very likely over,” the unemployment rate is still expected to top
10 percent this year, forcing the economy to recover at a sluggish
pace.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the economy shrank
in the spring at a pace of 0.7 percent, which was not as bad as
analysts had expected. But the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index
showed that the Midwestern manufacturing sector was weaker than
expected.
At the pump, retail gas prices fell by less than a penny overnight
to a new national average of $2.479 a gallon, according to AAA,
Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of
regular gas is 13.1 cents cheaper than last month and $1.154 less
than in the same period last year.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October delivery rose 9.04
cents to $1.7185 a gallon, and heating oil advanced 9.19 cents to
$1.7925 a gallon. Natural gas gave up 4.7 cents at $4.828 per 1,000
cubic feet.
