CAMARILLO, Calif. -- After three months of price cutting at the pump84 cents' worthregular grade gasoline inched up nearly a nickel in the past two weeks. The U.S. average price of $2.2306, up 4.86 cents since November 3, is nearly same as it was just before Thanksgiving 2005's $2.24, according to the most recent Lundberg Survey of approximately 7,000 U.S. gas stations.
Any further near-term hikes at the pump are likely to be small. A good supply-and-demand balance, backed up by still-stable [image-nocss] crude oil prices hovering under $60 per barrel, gives reduced volatility to gasoline prices, at least for now. A sudden and severe weather-induced pull on heating oil supplies could affect the values of crude and the entire product slate, as could a formidably determined Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
But OPEC's results from its November 1 pledge are still unclear, and its consideration of another oil production cut at its December meeting is accompanied by its plea to non-OPEC producers to kindly restrain their production reveals its foggy view. Unless a big negative event tips the world crude supply-and-demand balance, mild crude price volatility can also be expected.
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