The average price of gasoline topped $3 a gallon (80 cents a liter) at the pump Friday, amid growing concerns that U.S. refineries are simply not making enough gas to meet peak summer demand. But oil and gasoline futures fell on light volume Friday. Analysts said traders had little news to drive buying or selling, but may have sensed that the gasoline market has topped out, according to AP. «We're probably pretty close to the peak on retail gasoline,» said Kevin Lindemer, executive managing director of Global Insight's energy group. According to the Oil Price Information Service and AAA, the national average price of a gallon of gasoline hit $3.012 Friday, up 2.1 cents overnight. Prices at the pump generally lag the futures markets, so consumers can end up paying more for gas even as futures prices drop. Gasoline futures for June delivery fell 3.12 cents to settle at $2.2164 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light, sweet crude for June delivery fluctuated in a narrow range early before falling $1.26 a barrel to settle at $61.93 on the Nymex. Also on the Nymex, heating oil futures for June fell 1.44 cents to settle at $1.8309 a gallon, while natural gas prices fell 0.9 cents to settle at $7.938 per 1,000 cubic feet. Brent crude for June delivery fell 74 cents to settle at $65.31 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange. «There isn't anything happening,» said James Williams, an economist with WTRG Economics in London, Ark. Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets, suggested traders may have sensed the gasoline market has peaked. But he cautioned that Friday's low trading volumes make energy markets more difficult than usual to read. «A lower close in the gasoline market would at least keep hopes alive that we're seeing a seasonal top in that market,» Evans said. «(But) the thing about light volume is that it doesn't take that much of a change to push prices back up.» Gas prices have been driven higher in recent months by a slew of unexpected refinery outages and shutdowns in recent weeks. News Thursday that BP PLC's 400,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana, will not be operating at full capacity for several months due to unexpected repairs is just the latest in a string of such announcements. The outages have been reflected in weekly government data which has shown gasoline inventories to be falling during a season when most analysts think they should be rising. Summer driving begins Memorial Day weekend (May 26-28), and analysts worry refineries won't be producing enough gasoline by then to meet demand. «There's ongoing anxiety about refining capacity, refinery outages,» Evans said. But retail and futures gasoline markets can only go so high on the current spate of pessimism, Lindemer said. «The more balanced views are coming into the (futures) market,» he said. -- SPA
