Gas prices up nearly a quarter this month

WINSTED — Drivers will need to prepare to spend much more at the pump as gas prices continue to rise.According to www.connecticutgasprices.com, a website that keeps track of prices around the state, the average price for a gallon of regular gas has gone up by 23 cents in a little over a month, from $3.74 a gallon on Jan. 30 to $3.97 a gallon on Tuesday, March 6.Locally, most gas stations around Winsted offered regular gas at $3.91 a gallon on March 6.Jim MacPherson, spokesman for Connecticut Automobile Association of America (AAA), said drivers should brace themselves for gas prices to go even higher.“I think people should be thinking in terms of dealing with record gasoline prices by the time we get to the summer,” MacPherson said. “If people budget for it, they will be in good shape. But if they don’t budget for it, then they will be caught short.”MacPherson said driver demand for gasoline has nothing to do with the rising prices.“Demand for gasoline is actually lagging nationally by about six percent from the same time last year,” MacPherson said.Instead, MacPherson believes that gasoline prices are on the rise due to a combination of instability in oil-producing countries and people who speculate in oil prices.“The Strait of Hormuz is a passageway in Iran, and 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows right through that strait,” MacPherson said. “Due to the tension surrounding world issues, Iran has threatened to shut that strait down. Libya has never really recovered in terms of output, and there is still concern from the international community about the unrest in Syria. While Syria is not an oil-producing country, it is still part of the Middle East and that riles the oil market.”As for oil speculators, MacPherson said they are intentionally driving the price of a barrel of crude oil up in order to resell it at a higher profit.“There has been talk of making laws that a person who wants to speculate in oil would have to be physically in a position to take possession of it,” MacPherson said. “That would slow down prices from rising.”He could not predict how much more prices will rise.“No one can predict gasoline prices,” MacPherson said. “As of right now, all bets are off.”