Gas Prices Up All Over - Highest In San Diego Area

NEW YORK, March 24 Reuters reported that resurgent driving demand pushed U.S. retail gasoline prices up more than 10 percent over the last two weeks, the biggest fortnightly rise on record, according to the Lundberg survey of national service stations released on Sunday.

The national average for regular unleaded gasoline rocketed more than 14 cents to $1.347 a gallon in the two weeks ended March 22, powered by a jump in world crude oil prices and hungry fuel demand in a recovering U.S. economy.

"The U.S. economy is on the upward move, and there is an increase in gasoline demand anyway after winter," said Trilby Lundberg, editor of the survey.

U.S. gasoline demand -- more than 10 percent of all world oil consumption -- has been surprisingly strong in recent weeks. Mild winter weather has brought drivers out onto the roads and a reluctance to fly since the Sept. 11 attacks has encouraged car travel.

Demand has been further buoyed by a fall in pump prices over the winter. National average prices were running above $1.50 as recently as September, Lundberg said.

Gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles sold in record numbers late last year, boosted by cheap financing.

Crude oil prices have risen about 30 percent in the last two months as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries oil cartel has cut production to bolster prices and traders have worried about potential military conflict in key producer Iraq.

Domestic refiners have also throttled back supplies of gasoline this year to improve profit margins and run down a surplus built up during last year's economic slowdown.

The nation's most expensive fuel is currently in San Diego, California, a state where environmental fuel regulations, which have pushed up pump prices in much of the country, are particularly tight.