Peninsula gasoline prices continued to increase this week, driven up by higher oil prices and supply concerns linked to Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the oil producing region in the Gulf of Mexico.
The hikes so far this week have been as much as 10 cents a gallon, said Bill Gerdes, general manager of the Clallam Co-op in Sequim.
A gallon of regular unleaded gas at the store’s service station cost $2.83.9 on Tuesday, up from $2.79.9 Monday.
Other stations on Washington Street in downtown Sequim had regular unleaded at $2.89.9 a gallon, and higher grades of gasoline crossed the $3-a-gallon barrier.
In Port Townsend, the Shell and Exxon stations were charging $2.81.9 for regular unleaded and $3.01.9 for premium.
The Port Townsend Safeway station was charging $2.79.9 for regular unleaded and $2.99.9 for premium unleaded.
In Port Angeles, the Tesoro station at First and Lincoln streets was selling premium unleaded for $3.03.9 while offering regular unleaded for $2.81.9.
At the Exxon station on the west end of First and Front streets and the Safeway on Lincoln Street, gas was going for $2.81.9 for regular unleaded and $3.01.9 for premium unleaded.
And the Chevron station on west Marine Drive saw the price for regular unleaded increase three cents from Monday to Tuesday from $2.83.9 to $2.86.9 and seven cents for supreme unleaded from $2.99.9 to $3.06.9.
Wholesale prices going up
“The wholesale price of fuel is going up in line with the oil price,” Gerdes said.
“The price for a barrel of oil is going up and there doesn’t seem to be any stopping point there.
“I imagine the storm in the Gulf is going to have some effect on pricing as well.”