Pump prices likely to rise with Egypt unrest

Retail gasoline prices are likely to creep higher as anti-government protests continue in Egypt and concerns remain about the stability of the Middle East.

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.124 on Friday, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s up 2.4 cents in the past week. Analysts expect prices to stay at $3 a gallon or higher — perhaps rising as much as 8 cents over the next two weeks — until the conflict in Egypt is resolved and tensions ease in neighboring countries.

The pump increases come at a time when U.S. gasoline inventories are at an 18-year high of 236.2 million barrels. Crude oil imports are up, too, averaging 9.1 million barrels a day in the past four weeks, which is 641,000 barrels a day more than the four-week period in 2009.

At the same time, motorists are staying off the roads, with demand up less than 1 percent in the past month, as winter storms hit many parts of the country.