Introduction of summer blend will send gas prices higher

Be prepared to pay more for gasoline.

The average price is three cents higher than a week ago.

Tom Kloza, the global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, New Jersey, expects it’ll keep going up.

“I don’t want to alarm people, but this will be a month probably unlikely any month they’ve seen in the last 15 months in that you’re probably going to see prices increase by 15 or 20 cents a gallon and it may even follow through into a strong May as well.”

Kloza said an expected increase in demand as driving increases during warmer weather will help push prices higher.

“Probably about 15 cents of it is the more expensive hydrocarbons that you use in summer blend. Some of it has to do with refiners not as necessarily agog about running refiners hard and overproducing gasoline like they did last year.”

After peaking around Memorial Day, Kloza said prices drift over the summer, before moving lower again late in the year.