Maybe the rate of increase slowed, but the direction of change in energy prices remains the same - higher. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline rose another penny to $3.10 per gallon following the prior week's two cent rise. Prices were the firmest since October 2008 and were up from the December-2008 low of $1.61. Yesterday the spot market price for a gallon of regular gasoline of $2.48 was up another penny from last week's average. Typically, pump prices decline this time of year due to lessened seasonal demand. To account for this pattern Haver Analytics calculates seasonal factors and the adjusted gasoline price rose to $3.31 per gallon.

Crude oil prices increased last week to $91.03 per barrel of light sweet crude (WTI). The price compares to an average $79.51 during all of last year. Yesterday, the crude price rose further to $91.38 per barrel. The seasonally adjusted cost of a barrel of crude oil fell to $98.09 per barrel as calculated by Haver Analytics.

Lastly, natural gas prices slipped to an average of $4.47 per mmbtu. Prices are up from the low $3.49 during October. Yesterday, prices ticked higher to $4.48 but still were down from last year's early-January high of $6.50.

Demand for gasoline increased 1.9% last week versus last year. The demand for residual fuel oil, used for heating, jumped 10.0% and distillate demand rose 3.6% y/y. Inventories of crude oil and petroleum products rose a greatly lessened 0.7% during the last twelve months.

The energy price data are reported by the U.S. Department of Energy and can be found in Haver's WEEKLY database. The daily figures are in DAILY and the gasoline demand figures are in OILWKLY