There was a big surprise for many in the region who wanted to fill their gas tanks after work Wednesday.
Depending on the fueling station gas prices jumped anywhere from 15 to 20-cents a gallon. Rose White with Triple-A Nebraska says current prices reflect an upward move in regional wholesale prices.
"There have been several big moves in the spot market for gasoline that serve the Great Plains, Nebraska in particular. Wholesale prices moved sharply lower through May and bottomed out at about $2.66 a gallon not including taxes and delivery mark-ups. But, the first five days or so in June produced a rebound with spot price markets moving up about 11-cents a gallon. Today's trading alone they are up another 4-cents a gallon."
White says fueling stations upped their price at the pump when they heard the news.
"Some stations in an attempt to stay competitive may have increased their prices as soon as they knew they were going to take delivery of new supplies."
White stresses that there is no shortage of gasoline or crude oil.
"That is sometimes attributed to regional tightening of supplies. No major issues but that tightening of supplies can cause some temporary price swings and so it appears that is what we are looking at at this point."
White says besides this blip we are seeing right now prices should level off and could even drop.
"No reason to be concerned. Matter of fact we do expect some drops to be reported in the next couple weeks just because of the continuing build of the crude oil inventories."
White says Nebraskans are still paying about a dime less per gallon than the national average.
(Courtesy of The Nebraska Radio Network. All Rights Reserved.)
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