Today’s fuel price musings - What goes up must go … ok, we don’t know where it must go

Add comment June 5th, 2008

Well, that didn’t last long. After oil prices fell for several days in a row, due to dropping demand and indications of a strengthening dollar, they rebounded to top $128 a barrel today, before settling just under that mark. Basically, the dollar is looking weaker against the euro, which sends everyone into a tizzy.

This probably means the slight decrease in gas prices throughout Illinois may stop. Will they go up? Who knows. A couple interesting facts to note. First of all, according to the above AP article, oil prices have risen 89 percent in the past year, while gas prices have “only” gone up 27 percent. Gas station margins are really tight right now, and you might not see prices drop as quickly as oil prices do because of that. Before crying foul, note that they also didn’t raise prices as quickly as they could have.

Also note that Illinois gas prices are closer to the national average than they’ve been in almost two months. We’re still a good 12 cents above the nation, but now down to eighth in the country. Perhaps Illinois retaillers hit a ceiling of what they think customers will pay? But, given today’s unexpected news on the oil front, that could all change tomorrow.

Here’s the info (data courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford stood at $4.05 a gallon, down 3.5 from the record set Saturday (Sorry, I misspoke the other day when I said the record was Sunday). We’re still third in the state, behind Chicago ($4.20) and East St. Louis ($4.06). Most metro areas dipped slightly today. The state average dropped almost a cent to $4.11, down two cents from Monday’s record. The national average, however, continued at a record  clip, rising almost a cent to $3.99. Illinois has the eighth-highest gas prices in the nation.

Diesel: Rockford dropped more than a cent to $4.83 a gallon this morning, down almost four cents from the record set Friday (again, I misspoke, I had forgotten how many days were in May). We still have the second highest diesel prices in the state, behind Chicago ($4.88). The state average dropped a cent to $4.79 a gallon, down almost two cents from Saturday’s record. The national average dropped almost a cent to $4.77 a gallon, two cents shy of Friday’s record. Illinois has the 18th-highest prices in the country.