PROVIDENCE – Gasoline prices climbed for the eighth consecutive week as the cost of a gallon of unleaded regular rose 9 cents in Rhode Island and 8 cents in Massachusetts compared with a week ago, AAA Southern New England reported today.
The auto club’s June 8 survey found the average price of self-serve, unleaded regular at Ocean State stations was $2.59 per gallon. That represents a 92 cent increase since the start of the year, when the price stood at $1.66 per gallon. And the price increases show little sign of abating in the long run.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last week raised its forecast for U.S. benchmark crude oil 31 percent for the end of 2009 to $85 a barrel, as demand regains its strength and supplies shrink, according to Bloomberg News.
Goldman, in a June 3 report, said that the price rally is the result of the “unwinding of pricing dislocations caused by the credit crisis.”
Still, in the short term, the price of oil seems to have stalled out. In mid-day New York Mercantile Exchange trading, crude oil fell 2.4 percent to $66.78 per barrel, according to Bloomberg, as the strengthening dollar removed oil as an attractive hedge against currency fluctuations.
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In its survey today, AAA pegged the Rhode Island price 3 cents below the national average of $2.62 per gallon for unleaded regular, although it remained 6 cents above Massachusetts’ $2.52 per gallon price. And the current average is still $1.42 less than the statewide average a year ago of $4.01 per gallon.
In Massachusetts, the survey found the average price of self-serve, unleaded regular was $2.52 per gallon, up 8 cents from last week and 89 cents since January.
At stations in Rhode Island this week, the survey found average self-serve prices of $2.70 per gallon for midgrade unleaded, $2.81 for premium unleaded gasoline, and $2.62 for diesel.
For more information, visit AAA.com.
