Gas prices retreat

PROVIDENCE – Gasoline prices gave up their eight-week and seven-week streaks of increases in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, respectively, AAA Southern New England said on Monday.
The auto club’s May 16 survey found the average price of self-serve, unleaded regular at Ocean State stations was $4.03, down 2 cents from a week earlier. Prices ranged from $3.89 to $4.13.
The last time prices fell in AAA’s weekly survey was March 21. A year ago, Rhode Island’s average price was $2.94.
In Massachusetts, gasoline prices averaged $3.93, shedding one penny from a week earlier. Nationally, prices reached an average of $3.95.
According to Bloomberg News, crude oil for June delivery fell 80 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $98.85 a barrel at 10:26 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures have risen 38 percent in the past year.
Crude slipped as Europe and the International Monetary Fund prepared to consider extending aid to Greece and as New York manufacturing expanded at a slower pace than anticipated this month.
“We continue to follow the debt problems in Greece and what that will mean for the wider European economy and the dollar,” said Peter Beutel, the president of Cameron Hanover Inc., an energy-advisory company in New Canaan, Conn. “Everyone is closely following the economic data. Today’s data may signal that the Fed may need to come up with new stimulus.”
At stations in Rhode Island this week, the survey found average self-serve prices of $4.13 per gallon for midgrade unleaded, $4.29 for premium unleaded gasoline and $4.17 for diesel.