COLUMBUS – The price of gasoline in central Ohio fell for the second straight week but observers caution motorists that the pump prices will probably head upward again as the Fourth of July holiday approaches.
The average retail price of a gallon of regular gas in Columbus was $2.53 Monday morning, 13 cents less expensive than a week ago and 38 cents less than on Memorial Day, according to a daily survey from the auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and WEX, Inc.
Oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that oil prices recently rose $3 per barrel after OPEC said it is limiting oil production and that is liable to lead to increased prices at the pump in the weeks ahead.
“We won’t have a further decline in the price of gasoline; in fact, it might rise,” she said.
The AAA’s analysts also predict a price spike. They say the nationwide average price will probably remain in the $2.85 to $3-a-gallon range for much of the rest of the summer.
Benchmark U.S. crude climbed 4.6 percent to $68.58 a barrel in New York on Friday after OPEC nations agreed to produce about 1 million additional barrels of oil per day. Industry observers said the increase might be smaller than that so prices, which would ordinarily drop on a production hike, continued to increase instead.
Ohio’s statewide average price was $2.61 as drivers enjoyed one of the largest price drops in the nation, 9 cents a gallon.
The national average price fell a nickel to $2.85.