Mississippi flood behind latest gas price rise

Gasoline prices slipped a bit locally over the weekend after last week's drop in crude oil prices. But oil and gasoline futures prices rose again Monday, partly on concerns that Gulf Coast barging and refinery operations could be interrupted by spring floodwaters surging down the Mississippi River.

The increase in gasoline futures seemed to nullify analysts assessments Friday that pump prices had topped out for this season.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst of the Oil Price Information Service, of Wall, N.J., suggested that investors were overreacting Monday. "Fear, greed and panic are the biggest motivators of the market and today it's because the fear that we may lose a significant amount of the U.S. refining capacity that gasoline prices are sharply higher."

U.S. crude oil futures fell in New York trading from $114 last Monday to a settlement of $97.18 a barrel by Friday.

Linda Rafield, senior oil analyst at the energy information company Platts, based in Manhattan, said tight supplies of gasoline have made markets especially jittery.

"Right now," she said, "it's hard to get a grasp on the longer-term price trend seeing the excessive volatility in the futures market." Stephen Schork, editor of the industry newsletter The Schork Report published in Villanova, Pa., agrees and says there are shortages in some Midwestern states of summer grade gasoline -- unrelated to the flooding. "We'll see some relief at the pumps but it will be muted unless we see oil go down to $90 a barrel, he said.

Crude oil settled up $5.37 at $102.55 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures settled at $3.2784 a gallon.

Regular gasoline averaged $4.271 on Long Island Monday, the AAA said, down a cent from Friday. Prices had been rising almost every day since the recent low of $2.829 a gallon on Sept. 7.

Kevin Beyer, president of the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association, said wholesale prices to dealers rose by 12 to 13 cents at local terminals Monday, wiping out the declines on Thursday that had allowed some stations, including his, to drop pump prices slightly. "I would expect the [price on the] street to be up tomorrow," he said yesterday.

Meanwhile, New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said Monday that his office is completing what it called a "comprehensive review" of gasoline prices in the metropolitan area looking for "any violations that may exist."

This story is supplemented with reports from Bloomberg News.