Only 49 cents to go and climbing.
That's how far the average price of a gallon of self-serve, unleaded gasoline in Utah has to go before hitting the previously unthinkable $2 barrier.And unless the OPEC cartel decides to open up its crude oil spigots a little further in coming months, that barrier may crumble like the Berlin Wall once the summer driving season gets under way in June.
For now, the average price across Utah is at $1.51, AAA Utah reported Tuesday, another record high for what has become a commonplace event. So far this year, each monthly AAA survey of Utah service stations has produced a new record.
Not surprisingly, that state average reflects jumps in prices along the Wasatch Front as well. The average price in this week's survey was $1.49 in Salt Lake City, up 13 cents from the last poll on Feb. 15; Provo was up 21 cents to $1.52; and Ogden motorists were paying 21 cents more at an average of $1.50.
Sound bad? The folks in Nevada and Southern California, which AAA Utah also surveys, have no sympathy for Utahns. In Las Vegas they're currently paying an average of $1.73, in Reno $1.86, in San Francisco $1.90 and in Eureka, they've already hit $2 per gallon.
AAA Utah spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough said there's no mystery about what's going on. "Higher crude oil costs have hit consumers at the pumps in Utah (and are) at history-making highs across the nation."
Nationally, gas prices are up 17 cents per gallon to $1.54, a record high price, and up an average of 57 cents over the past year (compared to a 49-cent jump in Utah over the same 12 months).
The AAA national figure was a penny higher than the $1.53 average reported Monday by the U.S. Department of Energy and 15 cents higher than the previous record of $1.39 recorded by AAA in April 1981. Average U.S. prices are up 17.6 cents in the past month and 57.3 cents from a year ago.
Crude oil prices have been holding at more than $30 per barrel for weeks as petroleum traders await the outcome of the March 27 OPEC meeting in Vienna, where the cartel is now expected to boost production, thus easing the chance of wrecking the strong world economy, a scenario that would be a PR nightmare for the oil producers at best and kill the goose that laid the golden egg at worst.
But precisely how much the oil gurus will decide to raise production is an open question. Alan Kovski, an energy analyst with the Kiplinger Letter, which is based in Washington, D.C., told AAA that no one, in OPEC or out, knows what the right production level is to keep oil, and the products made from it, in balance.
"With oil inventories so low and OPEC so uncertain, it's really hard to tell when a downward trend in gas prices will start," said Kovski. "Refineries don't want to build inventories in a high-priced period."