The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Riverside County recorded its largest daily increase since July 15, 2015, Thursday, rising 5.5 cents, to $3.788.
The average price has risen nine of the past 11 days, increasing 20.6 cents, including 3.2 cents on Wednesday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It is 11.5 cents more than one week ago, 29.3 cents higher than one month ago and 17.6 cents greater than one year ago. It has risen 52.9 cents since the start of the year.
Wednesday and Thursday’s increases are the result of a 20% decrease in the gasoline supply from last week caused by incidents at Los Angeles-area refineries operated by Chevron and Marathon Oil and “a lack of imports” to compensate for the decrease, according to Marie Montgomery, a public relations specialist with the Automobile Club of Southern California.
“Imports take time to reach us because they all have to come by ship” from Asia, Canada and other locations, Montgomery told City News Service.
The start of the run of increases was the result of increasing oil costs caused by the attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, Montgomery said.