Gas prices stable; oil gets no boost from apparent debt agreement
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Retail gasoline prices were mostly stable over the last week, and oil on Monday failed to gain any boost from an apparent bipartisan deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. Weak demand and poor U.S. manufacturing numbers dragged the commodity into the loss column on world markets.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California barely budged over the last week, down 0.1 cents to $3.816, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Compared with a month ago, the California average is up less than three cents a gallon, from $3.79.
Nationally, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 1.1 cents in the last week to $3.705, the AAA said. Refinery outages, petroleum pipeline problems, storms and flooding have pushed the national average up more than 14 cents a gallon over the last month, from $3.562.
The AAA gets its averages from retail receipts from more than 100,000 service stations around the nation, collected by the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.
U.S. crude futures for September delivery dropped $1.03 to $94.67 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Europe’s Brent crude fell 35 cents to $116.39, down from a six-week high above $120 a barrel earlier, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.
-- Ronald D. White
Graphic: The AAA’s rolling 12-month average for regular gasoline prices.
