NEW YORK, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Prices of gasoline and heating oil have risen in the past two weeks and analysts see no change in the trend for the rest of the year.
The main factor in higher gasoline prices is the price of crude oil, which reached $32.85 a barrel in trading in New York Friday, the highest since March 18, two days before the start of the war in Iraq, the New York Times reported.
Supplies in the United States dropped to alarmingly low levels in the winter as a year of reductions in output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and then a general strike in Venezuela crimped global output and forced refineries to draw down petroleum stockpiles, the Times said.
"Crude oil, I think, will stay around $30 a barrel for the remainder of the year," said John Cook, senior oil economist at the Energy Information Administration. "I'm looking for relatively high prices for gasoline and heating oil."
