The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County rose Wednesday to its highest amount since Oct. 23, 2012, with further increases expected.
The average price rose six-tenths of a cent to $4.378, one day after increasing eight-tenths of a cent, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It is 2.5 cents more than one week and one month ago and $1.189 higher than one year ago.
The average price has risen $1.151 since the start of the year because of higher oil prices and increased demand for gasoline following the end of pandemic-related restrictions.
The price of a barrel of West Texas intermediate crude rose on the New York Mercantile Exchange to $77.62 per barrel Tuesday, its highest amount since 2014, in continued response to OPEC and a Russia-led group of oil producers agreeing Monday to maintain their schedule of increasing oil production by 400,000 barrels a day each month instead of doubling the increase to 800,000 barrels a day as some in the industry had speculated.
Crude oil costs account for slightly more than half of the pump price, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
San Diego County's record gas price is $4.725 set on Oct. 8, 2012.
