Average gasoline price rises 20 cents

Average U.S. retail gasoline prices rose 20 cents to $2.55 a gallon, and demand could rise further in coming weeks as daylight savings time gives Americans more time to drive, an industry analyst said Sunday.

The price of gas was the highest since September, but fell well short of August's record of $3.03 a gallon, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations.

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At 2 a.m. on Sunday, Americans moved their clocks an hour forward to daylight savings time, three weeks earlier than usual.

That change is expected to cut energy usage as demand for electricity falls during the early evening, but gas consumption could increase if more Americans use the extra daylight hours to drive, said Trilby Lundberg, the industry analyst who edits the survey.

Demand is strong and supply is constrained as more of the refiners who turn oil into gas are offline for maintenance compared with last year, Lundberg said.

The national average for self-serve regular unleaded gas was $2.5514 on March 9, up 20.27 cents from Feb. 23, and up 20.10 cents from March 10, 2006, according to Lundberg.

The March 9 level was the highest since $2.6598 on Sept. 8. The all-time record is $3.0256 on Aug. 11.

At $3.10 a gallon, San Francisco had the highest average price for self-serve regular unleaded gas on March 9, while the lowest price was $2.22 a gallon in Anchorage, Alaska.