How Mideast turmoil affects oil prices. Six questions answered

From the first spark of Middle East unrest in Tunisia in December until the violent suppression of protests in Libya in late February, the price of a barrel of crude oil rose from $88 a barrel to more than $100. Here’s a rundown on oil supply-price issues affecting the US.

3. What’s the forecast for gasoline prices here in the US?

REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
Mourners carry coffins containing the bodies of Libyans who were killed in the recent clashes in Benghazi February 25, 2011.

Pump-price increases are coming in the US despite slack domestic demand for gasoline, which remains “persistently 5-8 percent below 2007 peak-year levels,” reports ClearView.

Global oil demand was about 85 million b.p.d. in 2009, rising to 88 million in 2010 and on track to hit 90 million b.p.d. this year, according to the International Energy Agency.

Last week the national average price for gasoline at the pump hit $3.19 a gallon, up 54 cents (17 percent) from a year ago. Some pump prices on the west coast reached as high as $3.48 a gallon, the federal government reported. Rising global demand will continue to push prices up – as will political turmoil in key oil-producing nations, experts say.

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