Looks like the gubmint disagrees...

* After rising to a weekly record-level nominal price of $3.22 per gallon on May 21, retail regular motor gasoline prices have started to recede as refinery problems are addressed and gasoline imports increase.

* Strong demand for gasoline combined with low gasoline inventories and crude oil prices that are expected to average over $65 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) are likely to keep gasoline prices over $3 per gallon through the summer months.

* Retail regular grade motor gasoline prices are projected to average $3.05 per gallon this summer compared with the $2.84 per gallon average of last summer. The May average monthly gasoline pump price reached $3.15 per gallon and is expected to fall in June and July then rise again in August to $3.11 per gallon.

* The Henry Hub natural gas spot price is expected to average $7.96 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) in 2007, a $1.02-per-mcf increase from the 2006 average, and to average $8.15 per mcf in 2008.

* The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecast an active hurricane season again this year with 13 to 17 named storms forming in the Atlantic Basin, including 7 to 10 hurricanes. This Outlook includes hurricane-induced production outages of 13 million barrels of crude oil and 86 billion cubic feet of natural gas, primarily occurring in August and September (see this month’s supplemental report, The 2007 Outlook for Hurricane Impacts on Gulf of Mexico Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production)

It sounds like there's a good chance of that happening, and probably closer to you than you'd think. I've been hearing rumblings about this, but there was no official announcement until today.

Possible new oil refinery in Elk Point, SD.

Now $3.02

2.79 around here.

$2.99

$2.97

I'd bet that it's going up for the next two weeks, however.

2.85

Of course it is, there's a holiday coming up. You know what they say, "Gouge when the gouging is good".

Demand for gasoline increases 3% over the holidays, FYI.

So we can expect just a 3% rise in prices, right?

I paid $2.80 last night. Atlanta

Barring any other events, yes. Right around a dime.

Anyone else's rise 14 cents overnight? 2.85 to 2.99 here...

Oil prices rose above $76 a barrel on Friday to the highest level in 11 months amid renewed unrest in Nigeria and production cuts by Opec, the oil cartel.

Low US petrol inventories ahead of an anticipated surge in demand during the summer holiday season provided additional support.

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Analysts warned that further rises were likely as the Nigerian militant group responsible for most of the attacks on the oil industry called off a one-month truce. Attacks had cut about 25 per cent of Nigeria’s oil output.

Costanza Jacazio of Barclays Capital in London said: “The situation in Nigeria is flaring up again.” The kidnap of a three-year-old British girl in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt exacerbated the tension.

Frederic Lasserre, head of commodities at Société Générale in Paris, said: “In the short term, everything points up for prices.”

Shell, Nigeria’s largest foreign oil producer, said that it would not restart production in a key sector of the delta region for the rest of 2007 as insecurity persisted.

ICE August Brent, seen as the best gauge of the oil market, surged to $76.01 a barrel, just $2.5 a barrel below the record high. It later traded up 78 cents to $75.52 a barrel.

The price increase was accentuated by traders closing bets of a fall in prices ahead of the weekend. The fear of new attacks in Nigeria during the weekend forced the traders to take such action. US oil futures were up 74 cents at $72.55 a barrel.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls 43 per cent of global oil production, has so far resisted western calls to raise production amid high prices.

Leo Drollas, chief economist at the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, said: “Opec appears unwilling to contemplate raising output before its September meeting, a policy stance which will push prices higher.”

Since Opec started to cut its supply at the end of 2006, oil prices have surged by more than $15 a barrel. But oil demand, nevertheless, has been robust thanks to strong global economic growth.

The International Energy Agency, the industrialised countries’ energy watchdog, forecast global 2006 oil demand growth at 1.7m barrels a day, up from 0.8m b/d in 2005.

In other news, a couple gas delivery trucks had flat tires yesterday, so I'm sure the price of gas will rise accordingly to cover the replacement costs. :rolleyes: