Mainland gas prices might rise this spring
Advertiser Staff and News Services
An ample supply of gasoline has kept prices relatively stable all winter. However, filling up the tank could become more expensive before too long — particularly on the Mainland.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The anticipated springtime increase should be less extreme at its peak than in recent years, however, because a gallon of gas costs 25 percent less today than it did a year ago.
Joey Viernes fills up his SUV at the Chevron station at King and Pi'ikoi streets. While Mainland gas prices are slowly rising, Hawai'i prices have been bucking that trend.
Still, as refineries shift production from winter- to summer-grade fuel in preparation for the country's busiest driving season, prices are on the rise. Last week's Lundberg survey of 8,000 gas stations set the national average at $1.24, up 8.77 cents since Feb. 22.
In addition to the refinery changeovers, analyst Trilby Lundberg noted that rising crude oil prices were contributing to the increase and could go higher. On the positive side, all said that despite the sudden pain at the pump, gasoline still is a bargain compared with last year, when the national average was $1.49 a gallon.
In Hawai'i, where the state has just settled its $2 billion antitrust lawsuit against the oil industry over allegations of price fixing, gasoline prices have ignored the national trend and been on a slide for nearly a year.
A gallon of regular self-serve gas averaged $1.557 in Honolulu yesterday, down 23.3 percent from $1.920 a year ago and down 2.5 percent from $1.597 a month ago, according to figures collected by AAA. Premium and midgrades of gasoline in Hawai'i have experienced similar drops.
The state is expected to receive about $20 million to $25 million in its antitrust settlement with the oil companies after legal fees and other expenses are deducted. It has said it will put the money into the state Highways Fund to help defer any potential fuel tax increases.
Nationwide, Yasser Elguindi, an energy analyst for New York consultancy Medley Global Advisors, said he expects to see a gradual strengthening in retail gasoline prices across the country this summer, "but nothing that would be too outrageous."
Jan Stuart, head of research for global energy futures at ABN Amro in New York, said U.S. pump prices would probably rise "a little higher" but not to the uncomfortable levels motorists saw last summer.
