NEW YORK — Retail gas prices climbed for the 50th straight day Wednesday, and crude prices that had slumped all week bounced back.
Historically, filling-station prices tend to rise during the summer as millions of Americans take to the road. But a surge in crude prices the past few months and less production from the refiners that make gasoline have added pressure on prices.
“Refiners slowed production and did a lot of maintenance on the expectation that this was going to be a lousy year for demand,” said Fred Rozell, retail-pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service. “It turns out it wasn’t so bad.”
Yet it’s still pretty bad. Before the most recent government report on demand, gasoline supplied to the market was down 3 percent, and prices have still been cheaper than they were three years ago.
Pump prices added a half-cent overnight to a national average of $2.679 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular gas has jumped nearly 37 cents in a month.
In Denver, prices averaged $2.499, up a tenth of a cent from Tuesday and 28.8 cents from a month ago.
Meanwhile, oil rose above $71 a barrel after a key government report said crude held in U.S. storage houses fell for the third straight week.
Benchmark crude for July delivery added 56 cents to settle at $71.03 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Most of the trading already has switched to the August contract, which added 54 cents to settle at $71.70 a barrel.
The Energy Information Administration report said gasoline reserves grew last week by 3.4 million barrels, or 1.7 percent, to 205 million barrels.
