Local gas prices generally remain 15 to 20 cents below the state average of $4.33, though the volatile market has consumers and commuters skittish over unpredictable fluctuations in the cost of filling up their tank.
In a survey of Hollister gas stations Monday morning, prices for regular unleaded ranged from a low of $4.13 per gallon at the Arco station on San Felipe Road near Tiffany Motors to a high of $4.35 per gallon at the Chevron and Shell stations on Tres Pinos Road. The Chevron price was for a cash purchase – consumers who used a credit card to purchase fuel were charged 6 cents more per gallon.
A number of stations were selling gas for $4.17 per gallon Monday morning, with prices for super unleaded 20 to 26 cents more per gallon.
The average retail price of gasoline has risen nearly 4 cents per gallon in the past week, while the national average rose 5.2 cents per gallon in the past week to $3.71, according to the gasoline price website CaliforniaGasPrices.com.
Gas prices Sunday were nearly 46 cents per gallon higher than a year ago and are nearly 58 cents per gallon higher than they were a month ago. The national average is up nearly 28 cents per gallon in the last month.
“The price is being driven by the stock market, with people trading futures in crude oil,” said Graham Mackie, vice president of Dassel’s Petroleum in Hollister, where more than half the workforce commutes out of the county. “Last week it was driven by the Iran situation and some refineries in the U.S. that were having production problems.”
He said some price spikes are the result of “hype” from media coverage about rising gas prices, particularly the specter of $5-per-gallon gas.
“A war with Iran could definitely do that, but if things proceed as normal I don’t expect to see it” hit $5, Mackie said. “It’s all driven by the media’s exposure and people seem to run with that. The very fact that people decide to buy drives the market. If they hear news about a possible confrontation with Iran or there’s a refinery down, it’s time to fill their tank up.”
Dassel’s, which has been in business locally since 1936, operates on a card-lock system for customers and doesn’t post its prices. Mackie said that prices Monday “were comparable with the retail in town.”
Acknowledging that the gas price situation is “a delicate one,” Mackie said there are still plenty of production facilities operating in the U.S. and that consumers shouldn’t panic.
“Hopefully the economy of the world stays steady so it doesn’t have a big impact on prices,” he said.
GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan said gasoline prices have “spiked considerably higher in virtually every area over the last two weeks.”
While he said he doesn’t expect the pace of the recent increases to continue throughout March, a similar jump could occur closer to April Fools Day.
“And it won’t be a funny joke,” he said. “It’ll be disgusting reality. The rise in price is so unbelievable that we may have to revise upward our previous gasoline forecast that had called for a national average of between $3.74 to $4.15 by mid-May.”
Nationally, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is well past $4 in Hawaii, California and Alaska, with Connecticut and New York approaching that mark. Wyoming
Wyoming had the nation’s lowest average gas price at $3.17, followed by Colorado ($3.19) and Montana ($3.27).
Closer to home, californiagasprices.com reported Monday that prices for a gallon of gas were $4.29 in the Salinas metro area; $4.31 in the San Jose area; and $4.38 in the San Francisco area.
The Merced Sun-Star and the News-Topic contributed to this report.
