Southern California gas prices are rising fast, and the rate of acceleration is far outpacing the national average.
Fueled by in-state refinery problems and rising crude oil prices, Los Angeles County’s average price for a gallon of regular hit $3.84 on Monday. That was up 35 cents from a week ago, while the national average rose just 9 cents, to $2.63 a gallon, according to GasBuddy.com.
L.A. County’s average price is now up 63 cents from a month ago, although that is still 47 cents below the year-ago average of $4.30 a gallon.
The Inland Empire is seeing similar price hikes. San Bernardino County’s average on Monday was $3.75 a gallon, up 34 cents from a week ago and 58 cents from a month earlier.
“Gasoline prices continue to be tugged upward by previous increases in crude oil prices,” said Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst. “The national average stands at its highest in nearly five months and has risen 20 days straight. West Coast refinery issues have continued to weigh on West Coast gasoline prices, which have easily risen the fastest in the nation for a second consecutive week, though the increase in prices will be scaled back considerably this week.”
A variety of factors should conspire to push prices down in the coming weeks, DeHaan noted.
“We’re already starting to see some relief, but the market takes time to react,” he said. “We look at multiple levels, including gas futures and spot pricing. Those numbers indicate that gas stations will soon be buying gas at lower prices. Then they will start to decrease their pricing, and that gets passed along to the consumer.”
Barring any new refinery issues, DeHaan figured gas prices in the L.A. County region would return to the low- to mid-$3-a-gallon range in the coming weeks.
California overall has been dogged by refinery problems. The ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance remains mostly offline in the wake of an equipment failure that occurred in mid-February. The failure resulted in an explosion that injured four people. DeHaan said the facility won’t return to full operation until July at the earliest.
“They are looking at either buying some used equipment or doing something more involved,” he said.
Tesoro’s Golden Eagle refinery in Martinez briefly shut down a processing unit last month, although the facility has since resumed operation. Chevron’s refinery in Richmond also did an unplanned shutdown last month for flaring, which occurs when too much pressure builds up due to over-pressurizing of equipment and flammable gas is released through pressure-relief valves.
The problem was tied to the facility’s fluid catalytic cracking unit, which plays an important role in refining oil to gasoline.
DeHaan said a Phillips 66 refinery in Carson is in the midst of a planned maintenance operation that could last four to six weeks.
All of those factors have conspired to tighten the state’s available supply of gasoline.
Brent crude — a benchmark on oil pricing used by many U.S. refineries — fell a penny on Monday, closing at $66.45 a barrel — more than $10 above the Jan. 1 price of $56.05.
Jan Hanauer, co-owner of Steve’s Valencia Florist in Santa Clarita, said rising gas prices have caused their costs to skyrocket.
“We have three cargo vans for deliveries, and we pretty much put gas in them every other day,” she said. “We used to spend about $60 a week in gas for each van, but now it’s probably close to $100 a week.”
Hanauer said they have not passed the increased cost along to customers.
“People will only pay a certain value for a flower delivery,” she said. “You can’t price it so it’s unreachable.”
