Gas Prices Start Year Up From 2011
Thursday, January 5th, 2012 -- 9:52 AM
(Neillsville, Wis.) Higher gas prices to start the year will likely mean higher peak prices in a few months, according to one analyst.At about $3.26 per gallon, prices are starting 2012 about 20 cents higher than last year, and that could spell trouble, says Gregg Laskoski, Senior Petroleum Analyst for GasBuddy.com.
"That raises the floor for the new year," he says. "We look at the numbers from the past seven years and we see that nationwide, from the price at the last day of the year to the peak price, that average spread has been 93 cents per gallon."
So, the math is pretty simple: If prices peak about $1.00 higher than the start of the year, we could easily be paying between $4.20 and $4.30 per gallon at some point in 2012.
But, Laskoski says you shouldn?t get too concerned about ?doom and gloom? predictions about $5, $6 or even $8 per gallon gasoline.
"There are a lot of folks that are in the business of doom and gloom," he says, noting sarcastically that, "coincidentally," many of those prognosticators work for hedge funds that "gain significantly when that doom and gloom translates to rising crude oil prices."
"You can count on Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, for instance, to put out releases at least once a year that forecast $6 or $7 per gallon, to make sure they're being heard," he says.
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