Gas Prices at Pump Spike, Oil Futures Drop

Gas prices at the pump rose significantly today amid concerns that Hurricane Ike will impact oil production facilities in the Gulf and in the Houston area.

Here are excerpts of an Associated Press report:

The wholesale price of gasoline ranged from $4 to nearly $5 a gallon at the U.S. Gulf Coast on Thursday, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. That is up significantly from about $3 to $3.30 a gallon on Wednesday, Kloza said.

"We're looking at the highest wholesale prices ever for a huge swath of the country," he said. "People understand that regardless what happens with Ike, it's going to shut down the biggest refining cluster for a period of five, six, seven days."

The wholesale price of gasoline is what refineries charge retailers. Retailers then mark up those prices for the customer so they can make a profit — so if these wholesale prices hold, it could mean that pump prices for U.S. drivers easily break through the July 17 record of $4.114 a gallon.

The average U.S. retail price for gasoline was at $3.671 on Thursday, according to the Oil Price Information Service, auto club AAA and Wright Express.

This on a day that crude oil prices slipped. At 12:37 p.m. Eastern, Nymex Crude Future was $101.56 a barrel, which was a $1.02 drop, as reported by Bloomberg.