After nearly three months of declines, Southern California gas prices ticked up sharply in many areas over the past week even as prices nationwide have continued dropping, according to the Auto Club’s Weekend Gas Watch. The average price for self-serve regular gasoline in California is $5.31, which is six cents higher than last week. The average national price is $3.75, which is eight cents lower than a week ago.
The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $5.34 per gallon, which is nine cents higher than last week, 14 cents lower than last month, and 94 cents higher than last year. In San Diego, the average price is $5.30, which is eight cents higher than last week, 13 cents lower than last month, and 95 cents higher than last year.
On the Central Coast, the average price is $5.41, which is one cent higher than last week, 18 cents lower than last month and $1.05 higher than last year. In Riverside, the average per-gallon price is $5.21, which is seven cents higher than last week, 15 cents lower than last month and 89 cents higher than a year ago. In Bakersfield, the $5.30 average price is four cents lower than last Thursday, 37 cents lower than last month and 94 cents higher than a year ago today.
“This week’s record-high temperatures greatly increased the probability of refinery power blackouts in the state, which can take refineries offline for days or even weeks after the outages,” said Auto Club spokesperson Doug Shupe. “Although no outages have been reported so far, sellers with extra supplies of gasoline have raised their prices and imported gasoline on cargo ships is not being delivered right now in anticipation of future need, which drove up Los Angeles wholesale gasoline prices sharply in the last week. In addition, there are some regional refinery issues that have reduced gasoline production and inventories.”
The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline. As of 9 a.m. on Sept. 8, averages are: