PROVIDENCE – Gasoline prices in Rhode Island fell to “levels not seen locally since back in early March,” said AAA Southern New England on Monday.
The auto club’s Nov. 7 survey found the average price of self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline at Ocean State stations fell for the third consecutive week to $3.51 per gallon, down 3 cents from last week.
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Nationally, the average stood at $3.41, and in Massachusetts it was $3.40, slipping by one penny from last week.
Separately, Bloomberg News reported crude oil prices increased to a three-month high in New York on the prospect of new political leadership in two of Europe’s most financially hard-hit countries.
Futures rose as much as 1.5 percent as Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced pressure to quit as the country’s 10-year borrowing costs approached the 7 percent level that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou agreed to resign to allow a national unity government to secure outside financing.
“Supply and demand are taking a backseat to political factors,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Washington. “The current system in Europe is struggling to come to terms with the financial difficulties in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain. There’s a feeling that a change in political leadership may be the needed answer.”
Crude oil for December delivery rose 58 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $94.84 a barrel at 10:31 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract reached $95.66, the highest intraday price since Aug. 2.
Brent oil for December settlement climbed $1.54, or 1.4 percent, to $113.51 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark reached $114.88, the highest intraday price since Sept. 15.
Italy’s parliament votes tomorrow on last year’s budget report as two Berlusconi allies defected to the opposition last week and a third quit yesterday. Giuliano Ferrara, editor of newspaper Il Foglio and a former Berlusconi spokesman, reported that the premier may step down. Berlusconi denied the report.
Greek Negotiations
Papandreou and Antonis Samaras, head of the main opposition party, agreed to form a government to lead Greece “to elections immediately after the implementation of European Council decisions on Oct. 26,” according to an email from the office of President Karolos Papoulias in Athens.
“The market is trading on the most recent headlines from Italy and Greece,” said Tom Bentz, a broker with BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New York. “We were able to reach a new high earlier today and it looks like it will continue to test the upside.”
European finance chiefs return to Brussels today in an effort to convince global leaders that they can shield countries such as Italy and Spain from the debt crisis with their bailout fund. Finance ministers from the 17-member euro area will work on the details of plans to increase the muscle of the European Financial Stability Facility. Leveraging the fund would aim to ramp up spending capacity to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), Bloomberg said.
At stations in Rhode Island this week, the survey found average self-serve prices of $3.69 per gallon for midgrade unleaded, $3.84 for premium unleaded gasoline and $3.96 for diesel.
A year ago, the price of self-serve, regular gasoline in Rhode Island was $2.92; prices Monday ranged from $3.34 to $3.64.
Gas prices are about to go up real fast.