Today’s fuel price musings - Gas prices still lower than most of the state

October 16th, 2009 at 02:58pm Thomas V. Bona

Haven’t done this in a while, but some interesting stuff out there. Gasoline prices nationally are in a slight uptick because of a drop in supply, as refiners aren’t seeing margins high enough to make it worth the effort.

Just discovered the GasBuddy Blog, and Patrick had some interesting thoughts yesterday:

To stop oil prices from a sustained rally we need a few things:
1) A stronger U.S. dollar
2) An acceptable profit margin for refiners to encourage production
3) Goldman Sachs to refrain from “investing” billions of dollars into oil
4) Traders who look at numbers vs. last year. Oil inventories are still extremely healthy and things aren’t improving as fast as some believe

Gasoline prices are still well cheaper than they were a year ago, but that will change by year’s end. While 2008 saw prices fall off a cliff, 2009 will just see some ebbing.

Here are the prices from this morning (courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford rose two cents to $2.52 a gallon today, up almost six cents in the past week but down a cent in the past month and down 61 cents in the past year. We’re ninth in the state and tied at 102nd of the country’s 280 metro area. The Illinois average rose almost three cents to $2.58 a gallon, up eight cents in the past week and one cent in the past month, but down 66 cents in the past year. The national average rost more than a cent to $2.50 a gallon, up three cents in the past week, but down almost six cents in the past month and down 58 cents in the past year. Illinois has the 11th-highest gas prices in the nation, including the District of Columbia.

Diesel: Rockford rose a cent to $2.66 a gallon, up more than three cents in the past week, but down almost two cents in the past month and down but almost $1.06 in the past year. We have the third-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average rose a cent to $2.69, a three-cent increase in the past week, but a slight drop in the past month and a $1.19 drop in the past year. The national average rose a cent to $2.65, a three-cent increase in the past week, but a one-cent drop in the past month and a $1.11 drop in the past year. Illinois is tied with the 19th-highest diesel prices in the country, including the District of Columbia.

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