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Energy

Gas Prices Near $3 in Some California Cities

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Gas Prices Near $3 in Some California Cities

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As the price of oil lurches between $40 and $45, depending on rumors from the Middle East, Nigeria and the United States, the price of a regular gallon of gasoline has neared $3 in some California cities, well above the national price of $2.15.

The current average price in San Francisco is $2.95, in Santa Barbara $2.90, in Ventura at $2.84, in Los Angeles and San Diego $2.83, according to GasBuddy. This area of California has 20 million people, which makes it nearly 6% of the U.S. population.

It will not take much to push gas prices in these cities over $3. Some experts believe there is an oversupply. Others have taken the opposite side of the argument. According to Oilprice.com, data on oil and gas supplies is scarce and often inaccurate. Any window on undersupply could drive prices higher.

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The latest example of spotty data is the situation in Nigeria. Have rebels cut several important oil pipes, or does the government have this under control? Each side has a different story, and both could be wrong.

Incidentally, California gas prices have upward pressure no matter what the state of oil is. The gas tax in California is the fifth highest in the nation at $0.57 per gallon. The national average is $0.48, and the lowest is in Alaska at $0.32. Consider where California gas prices would sit on the state price spectrum if its tax was $0.25 a gallon lower?

For the time being, factors outside taxes should keep the price of the average gallon of regular in California around $3. However, oil was above $90 just a year and a half ago. Tension in the Middle East, problems in Nigeria, further financial problems with U.S. frackers. Not entirely unlikely.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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