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- 02 Mar
How Much Increases in Crude Oil Prices Raise Retail Fuel Prices
In the weekly “Today in Energy” report released March 1, 2011 by the US Energy Information Administration, there’s a good equation explaining how much a price increase for a barrel of oil equates to a retail fuel price increase.
“Many factors affect retail gasoline prices, but changing prices for domestic and global crude oils are particularly important. Typically, a $10 per barrel change in the spot price of crude oil translates into about a 24 cent per gallon change in the retail price of gasoline within about two months. About half of that price change usually occurs within the first two weeks of the crude oil price change. From the beginning of 2011 through February 18 – just before the Libyan crisis began – the spot price of Brent crude oil increased about $9 per barrel from $93 per barrel to $102 per barrel. Since then, the price of Brent crude oil has increased by a further $10 per barrel.”
That’s relatively consistant with what happened in the retail fuel market over the past 2 weeks, where the latter half of February 2011 saw a $10 increase in a barrel of oil equate to a $.25 retail fuel price increase.
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