Sharply rising crude-oil prices over the past week mean higher gasoline prices in the days leading up to the July 4 holiday, travel club AAA said.
"It looks like the fun is over for motorists who have enjoyed a month-long streak of declining gas prices," AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said in a statement.
The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled at $72.76 a barrel Wednesday _ the highest in 3 { and $7 above last week's low.
Normally such a sharp crude price increase would spur a 20-cent-a-a gallon rise in the price of gas, AAA said. "However, strong production of summer gasoline should help prevent that big of a spike," Jenkins said. "For now, motorists should expect an increase of 5 to 10 cents before the holiday."
GasBuddy.com projected that July 4 travelers will pay an average of $2.90 a gallon across the nation _ highest for the holiday since 2014.
AAA blamed the higher crude prices on a decline in U.S. oil inventories over the past week; a U.S.-driven push for allies to end imports of Iranian oil by Nov. 4 as part of President Donald Trump's decision to end the 2015 nuclear deal; production challenges in Canada; low crude output from Venezuela and Libya; and a decision by Russia and OPEC countries to increase production at lower rates than expected.
