Today’s fuel price musings - oil spikes, so where do we go from here

July 30th, 2008 at 07:00pm Thomas V. Bona

Oil prices jumped more than $4 a barrel today, after the Energy Department said gasoline supplies dropped by a surprising amount. The drop could mean Americans are driving more than thought, analysts said. Or it could just be a seasonal bump in demand. Goldman Sachs still says oil could hit $149 by the end of the year, but others said this was a bump before further declines.

Meanwhile, Phil Flynn is reappropriating Barry McGuire, and I can’t get the song out of my head.

Here are the prices, at least as of this morning. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. (Prices, as always, from AAAs fuelgaugereport.com.

Gasoline: Rockford dropped a cent to $3.80 a gallon, a 41-cent drop in two weeks and the lowest since May 10. We remain eighth in the state in gas prices. The Illinois average dropped more than a cent to just under $4.00, a 26-cent drop inĀ  two weeks and the lowest since late May. The national average dropped more than a cent to $3.93 today and 19 cents in two weeks. Illinois has the 14th-highest gas prices in the nation (including the District of Columbia).

Diesel: Rockford increased a fraction of a cent, remaining at $4.66 a gallon, down 11 cents in the past month. We have the sixth-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped a cent to $4.73. The national average dropped a cent to $4.71. Illinois has the 22nd-highest prices in the country (including the District of Columbia).

Entry Filed under: Fuel price musings