EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - Motorists filling up their tanks Thursday may see an unpleasant surprise at the pump. The price for a gallon of regular self-serve gasoline is likely to increase to $3.15-$3.19 throughout Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.
For some gasoline stations this will mean increasing prices as much as 20-cents per gallon compared to prices earlier this week.
"The rise in gasoline prices is due to falling margins. We've seen retail prices dropping the last week and a half while wholesale costs have moved slightly higher," says GasBuddy Senior Petroleum Analyst, Patrick DeHaan.
DeHaan explains that he expects prices to remain between an average of $2.95 and $3.35 through February before beginning to rise in March and April ahead of the summer driving season. "We could see prices this Spring surpass $4 per gallon in some areas as demand improves along with the economy," he notes.
We're just days into the new year and the price of crude is already slipping and sliding, but expectations are still high.
"We're only beginning to see the bullish move and $100 a barrel is easily attainable first quarter of 2011, and maybe as high as some of the highs we saw a couple of years ago, closing in on $125-$130 a barrel for 2011," says independent oil trader Daniel Dicker.
Analysts say the 15-percent jump in prices towards the end of 2010 is just the beginning of an upward trend triggered by a weak dollar and an ever increasing demand from places like China.
The International Energy Agency projects global demand will reach record levels this year.
For consumers in the U.S. that translates to prices north of $3 per gallon at the pump.
"$5 a gallon looks like it's a way, a bit in the future. Although I think it's possible in 2012 and in general we're looking at higher prices across the next several years," Dicker says.
While Congress has yet to reveal it's full agenda, observers believe it will tackle those rising gas prices.
Meanwhile the oil companies are rolling out a campaign to ramp up production.
