AAA says average Long Island gas price tops $3 a gallon

From the AAA comes word of an unhappy milestone for Long Island drivers: The average price for regular gasoline has topped the $3 mark for the first time since Oct. 24, 2008.

It averaged $3.003 a gallon Wednesday in a daily survey of stations done for the motorist group. The average stands now almost 84 cents a gallon higher than a year ago.

Spokesman Robert Sinclair of the AAA's Long Island office says the timing is unfortunate. "At a time when a lot of people are suffering economically through job losses and reductions in salary," he said, "it's a continued burden when gasoline prices continue to rise."

The last time the average was more than $3, prices were on the way down - from the record high of $4.346 on July 8, 2008, headed toward a bottom of less than $2 in December of that year.

The U.S. Department of Energy has forecast that the national average will top $3 gallon at times this summer; it was $2.86 Wednesday, suggesting that drivers can expect to see another 14 cents at the pumps.

That prediction, however, assumed an average crude oil price of $79 a barrel this summer. But futures prices for crude have sailed well past that - to a settlement of $85.84 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Higher crude prices result partly from investors buying oil in anticipation of a future increase in demand as the world economy recovers from recession. Current supply and demand also are factors, says oil analyst Peter Beutel, president of the consulting firm Cameron Hanover Inc. based in New Canaan, Conn. The Energy Department said demand last week rose from the week before by 249,000 barrels a day, to 9.325 million a day. Meanwhile, supplies are getting tighter; the Energy Department said national gasoline stocks fell last week by 1.1 million barrels to 221.3 million, which Bloomberg News said was the lowest since Jan. 1.

GALLON OF GASOLINE

$3.003 - Yesterday

$2.932 - Month ago

$2.165 - Year ago