U.S. pump price highest since August

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Soaring U.S. retail gasoline prices show no signs of easing, jumping another 7.4 cents over the last week to an average $2.88 a gallon, the government said on Monday.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline has increased 58 cents in the last two months to the highest level since last August and is up 9.3 cents from a year ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of service stations.

Pump prices are increasing because of strong gasoline demand, oil refinery outages and low gasoline imports, which are tightening U.S. motor fuel supplies.

Gasoline demand during the first week the month hit an April record of 9.5 million barrels a day. During the same period, gasoline inventories fell 5.5 million barrels.

Still, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman has said he is "relatively confident" there will be enough supply to meet summer gasoline demand.

The current national pump price is already way above the EIA's forecast summer average of $2.81 a gallon, and the peak driving period is still to come.

In the EIA's new weekly survey, West Coast service stations had the most expensive fuel by region, up 5.7 cents at $3.20 a gallon. Among major cities, San Francisco had the highest city gasoline costs at $3.38 a gallon, up 5.1 cents.

The best deal for drivers was along the Gulf Coast at $2.76 a gallon, up 8.8 cents. Houston had the lowest pump price at $2.73 a gallon, up 7.5 cents.

The EIA also reported that gasoline prices were up 5.1 cents at $3.28 in Los Angeles, up 6.6 cents at $3.09 in Seattle, up 11.4 cents at $2.97 in Chicago, up 9.5 cents at $2.94 in Miami, up 5.4 cents at $2.85 in New York City, up 6 cents at $2.77 in Denver and up 5.6 cents at $2.74 in Boston.

Separately, the price of diesel fuel increased 3.7 cents to $2.88 a gallon, the highest since the Labor Day holiday last September and 11 cents higher than a year ago.

The Rocky Mountain region had the most expensive diesel, up 3 cents $2.98 a gallon. Diesel was cheapest on the Gulf Coast, up 3.9 cents to $2.85 a gallon.

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