CAMARILLO, Calif. -- The May 6 national average retail price for regular-grade gasoline jumped 8.78 cents per gallon (CPG) from two weeks ago to $2.2668. It has now climbed 49.82 cents from its Feb. 19 level, according to the most recent Lundberg Survey of approximately 2,500 U.S. gas stations.
During these two weeks, the U.S. average weighted wholesale price of regular grade did not rise; in fact, it weakened by a fraction of a penny. Meanwhile, the U.S. average retail margin expanded by 8.96 cents. This was a recovery from the inferior 11.26-CPG margin of two weeks ago to the current margin of 20.22 cents.
Most of retail’s nearly 50-cent rise in the past three months came from crude oil, while the rest came from the U.S. gasoline market’s own dynamics. In this period, those included year-on-year gasoline demand improvement, the normal seasonal demand rises, the structurally built-in cost increases from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations affecting formulations, and U.S. refiners’ seasonal maintenance projects.
Since most of gasoline's contribution to the pump-price rise has been spent, from here it would probably take a significant rise in oil prices to keep retail prices climbing. This may not be forthcoming, since some of oil’s price rises have been caused by the weaker U.S. dollar, not solely from changes in the world oil supply/demand balance.
Camarillo, Calif.-based Lundberg Survey Inc. is an independent market research company specializing in the U.S. petroleum marketing and related industries.
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