Gas prices edging up, but remain lowest in decade for Memorial Day

Regular gas in  Jackson

Regular gas in Jackson

The price of gasoline is the lowest for a Memorial Day weekend in 11 years.

The average price of a gallon of regular in the Garden State is now $2.15, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, New Jersey.

Drivers in the Philadelphia area are paying an average of $2.47 for a gallon of regular, while motorists in the Wilmington region are paying about $2.24.

“We’ve seen about a 40-, 45-cent increase in gas prices since the winter, but we’re running about 40 cents below last year,” said Kloza. “So a cheap driving season, probably the busiest driving season on record.”

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Unless there’s a hurricane that disrupts production in the Gulf of Mexico, Kloza doesn’t expect big changes in gas prices this summer.

“I think we spend most of the summer where we are right now and then we go lower in the last hundred days of the year,” he said. “You know if I’m a gasoline retailer right now [in New Jersey] and I’m back above $2, I’m not going to throw away those $1.99 signs.”

It will be more difficult to find bargain prices if you buy premium gas, he said.

“There are more of those cars and more people that are treating their car to premium gas. It used to trade for 10, 15, 20 cents over regular. These days it’s more like 35, 40, 45 cents,” Kloza said. “It’s highest just because octane is tough. To get that octane up to 93 is a little more difficult.”

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