The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County on Wednesday set a record for the 12th consecutive day, rising 1.9 cents to $6.414, extending its streak of increases to 14 consecutive days.
The average price risen 32.3 cents over the past 14 days, including 2.9 cents Tuesday, according to figures from the AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. It is 21.4 cents more than one week ago, 53.9 cents higher than one month ago and $2.169 greater than one year ago.
The Los Angeles County average price has increased $1.618 since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 “sent shock waves through the oil market that have kept oil costs elevated,” said Andrew Gross, an AAA national public relations manager. The Orange County average price has increased $1.606.
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.
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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