Energy Sector Roundup: Gasoline Hits $3.60 a Gallon

Gasoline and Crude Rise to New Records

Gas prices hit $3.60 a gallon and oil futures rose to a new record as well, near $120 a barrel, as strikes overseas raises concerns about crude supplies.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record $119.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight on concerns about supply disruptions in the U.K. and Nigeria. Prices later retreated to settle up 23 cents at $118.75 a barrel after the dollar stabilized against the euro.

At the pump, the national average price for a gallon of regular rose 0.4 cent overnight to a record $3.603 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. While prices are 66 cents higher than a year ago, the rate of increase slowed since last week, when prices jumped more than 2 cents a day at times.

That could suggest that a price peak is near, analysts said. May gasoline futures fell 2.3 cents to settle at $3.0307 a gallon.

May heating oil futures fell 0.4 cent to settle at $3.2988 a gallon, and natural gas rose 31.7 cents to settle at $11.280 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Strikes Keep Oil Prices Up

Labor actions that cut crude supplies from the North Sea and Nigeria helped keep oil prices up around $120 a barrel. BP PLC on Sunday shut down the Forties Pipeline System that carries more than 700,000 barrels of oil a day to the U.K. because of a 48-hour walkout by employees in a pension dispute at a refinery in central Scotland.

Workers will return to the Grangemouth refinery Tuesday, their union said. But the union also said further industrial action is possible unless refinery owner Ineos backs down.