Storm concerns threaten to send gasoline prices back over $4 a gallon.

Storm concerns threaten to send gasoline prices back over $4 a gallon.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gasoline prices jumped to unprecedented levels in the wholesale markets Thursday as Hurricane Ike tore across the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to strike Texas and its refineries.

Crude oil on the futures market, however, sank below $101 a barrel to its lowest settlement price since late March — a sign that investors are still worried about waning global demand.

The wholesale price of gasoline ranged from $4 to nearly $5 a gallon in the U.S. Gulf Coast throughout the day on Thursday, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

That was up significantly from about $3 to $3.30 a gallon on Wednesday, Kloza said, and the surge drove up wholesale prices in other U.S. regions, too.

“We’re looking at the highest wholesale prices ever for a huge swath of the country,” he said. “People understand that regardless of what happens with Ike, it’s going to shut down the biggest refining cluster for a period of five, six, seven days.”

Wholesale prices are what refineries charge retailers. Retailers then mark up those prices for the customer to make a profit — so if these wholesale prices hold, it could mean that pump prices for U.S. drivers easily break through the July 17 record of $4.114 a gallon.

How fast those prices would hit the pump would depend on disruptions, if any, caused by Hurricane Ike.

The average U.S. retail price for regular gasoline was at $3.671 Thursday, according to the Oil Price Information Service, auto club AAA and Wright Express. Gasoline remains above $4 a gallon in just a few areas of the country, including Alaska, Hawaii, San Francisco and Chicago.

The market’s renewed storm worries arrive a day after the U.S. Energy Department reported a larger-than-expected drop in crude and gasoline inventories, and OPEC decided to cut excess production by about half a million barrels a day.

October gasoline futures rose 8.72 cents to settle at $2.7488 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

But despite the heightening anxiety about Ike, funds continued to liquidate their crude investments, anticipating a slower global economy and a stronger U.S. dollar.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery on the Nymex fell $1.71 to settle at $100.87 a barrel — the lowest close since March 24. During trading, the contract dropped as low as $100.10 a barrel.

The last time crude traded below $100 was April 2, and the last time it closed below that level was March 4.