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Local Gas Prices Climbing

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 5, 2007

TAMPA - The chill is in the air, if you consider high 50s cold; it was light on the morning commute this morning. It must be fall in Florida, about time for the price for a gallon of gasoline to spike.

For a few weeks, the price hovered around $2.75 for a gallon of regular. This week, industry analysts say, those prices may become part of the good old days, at least for the near future. Prices may ease down a bit by the end of the month.

The price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline this week may bump up to nearly $3, if not more, observers say.

It cost Ken McKissick $75.63
to fill his Ford Expedition.

Any increase in the price of gas hits Ken McKissick hard. He's in the process of moving his family from Miami to Tampa. Because of the housing slump, he is having trouble selling his home in South Florida, and he is forced to make trips back and forth every other week.

His Ford Expedition is a nice ride, but, boy, does it guzzle gas, he said.

While filling up at the BP station at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Fowler Avenue this morning, McKissick lamented that he puts between $55 and $80 a week into his tank.

"I don't think it will affect what I currently do," he said. "I just got to pay more money. Basically, way things are in Florida with property taxes and insurance rates, gas prices just add on. I can't imagine the struggles people have who are living paycheck to paycheck."

Still, he said, gas prices in South Florida average about a dime more than in the Tampa Bay area.

"I'm trying to get out of Miami," he said, "the cost of living down there is outrageous."

Early Monday, a sampling of gas prices in the Tampa Bay area found most service stations still charged below the nefarious number of $3 a gallon, a price that was flirted with once already this year.

According to gasbuddy.com, a Web site that tracks gasoline prices throughout the United States and Canada, the lowest pump prices on Monday morning in the Bay area was $2.79 a gallon at a Murphy gas station in Gibsonton. The bulk of service stations in the area sold regular gas for between $2.81 a gallon up to $2.93, the Web site said.

Just a few months ago, gas prices plummeted from near $3 a gallon to an average of about $2.50. It hovered around there for a short time, then crept upward to where it is today, averaging, in the Bay area, around $2.85.

In August 2006, gas averaged about $2.58 a gallon, but dropped to $2.13 a gallon in October. The opposite seems true this year.

Analysts say the drop in August was due to the price of crude oil going down by 12 cents a barrel, reflected in prices at the pump.

But, analysts say, the market is easily influenced. Supply disruptions, falling U.S. stockpiles of crude oil and rising demand can result in unexpected price spikes at any given time.

This year, supply disruptions pushed pump prices nationwide to record highs. In the Tampa Bay area, the average price of regular unleaded gas soared to a high of $3.09 a gallon in May.

According to AAA, the national average retail price for a gallon of unleaded regular gas was $3 this morning. On the AAA Web site's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, today's price is the highest it has been since May, when the national average peaked at $3.17.

The report said the average price last month was $2.76 and last November, the average price was $2.20.

In it's weekly gasoline price advisory, AAA said that the price for crude oil rose significantly and that will be reflected in retail gasoline prices, if not today, then this week. But there is a belief that there is some measure of relief before the end of the month.

"While it is frustrating for motorists to pay high prices at a time when they ordinarily decrease," Randy Bly, director of community relations for AAA Auto Club South, said in the news release, "history suggests that both oil and gasoline prices will drop before Thanksgiving."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or at kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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