Gasoline Prices Shoot Up

Prices at the nation’s gasoline pumps jumped more than three cents a gallon as warm weather pushed up demand at a time of lagging international supply, an analyst said Sunday.

“It’s the largest increase so far in the year,” Trilby Lundberg said.

The average pump price, including all grades and taxes, was 124.39 cents a gallon Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey of 10,000 gas stations across the country. That was up 3.3 cents from the March 8 survey.

Prices have been rising since November, except for dips in late January and early February.

Lundberg said the hikes are due to three factors: rising international crude oil prices, the higher costs of reformulated clean-air gas recipes required under U.S. law and warmer weather that heralds the high-volume spring and summer driving seasons.

At self-serve pumps the average per-gallon price was 117.92 cents for regular unleaded, 127.91 cents for mid-grade unleaded and 136.44 cents for premium unleaded.