If you are heading south for the Memorial Day weekend and are looking to save money on gasoline, wait until you get to Utah County before filling up.
Most Salt Lake gas stations raised their prices this week, kicking unleaded up to around $1 a gallon. Regular hovered around 94 cents.Utah County stations, on the other hand, lowered their prices a few weeks ago and claim they have no plans to raise them.
Gasoline in Utah County is running 92 cents for unleaded and 89 cents for regular.
If headed north, you won't find the uniformity in prices that you find in the Salt Lake and Utah valleys.
Prices vary, but gas seems cheaper the closer one gets to Salt Lake City. The prices rise as motorists head north.
A check of area stations showed that regular gas ranged from a low of 89.9 cents per gallon in many Bountiful and Farmington stations to a high of 96.9 cents at one Farmington outlet, averaging 94.9 cents in the Layton-Clearfield area.
Unleaded was a low of 93.9 cents a gallon in some Bountiful stations to 98.9 and 99.9 cents in the Clearfield and Layton areas. Premium unleaded ranged from a high of 109.9 cents per gallon in the county's north end to a low of 101.9 in the south end.
Some Salt Lake stations began raising their prices last week. Most hiked their prices dramatically on Tuesday, raising them 6 to 8 cents per gallon for unleaded.
Executives from Rainbo and 7-Eleven failed to return several phone calls from the Deseret News regarding the price hike.
Chevron refinery manager Jerry Moffitt noticed the hike. He attributes it to high demand and low supply.
There has been a heavier draw on refinery inventories in the past two weeks than in several years past, he said. Apparently, retailers are expecting to sell a lot of gas over the Memorial weekend.
"We've had our inventories drawn down to the very minimum levels. I can't tell you we are out. We are not. But we are as close to being out as we can get without being out."
It's part of the law of supply and demand, he said. When consumer demand is high and refinery supply is low, gas prices go up.
"I don't think it is any more complicated than that," Moffitt said.