A momentary lapse in the $4 price for gas

By Thomas V. Bona

BusinessRockford.com

That didn’t last long.

Average gas prices in the Rockford metro area dipped below $4 a gallon today for the first time since late May.

But they jumped right back up. Road Ranger’s Rockford stores, for example, started selling gas at $4.16 a gallon late this morning, according to the chain’s Web site, while some others in the region stayed below $4.

It’s been a slow decline of Rockford’s gas prices, a trend out of sync with state and national averages.

The average price for the Rockford metro area — which includes such cheaper areas as Belvidere, Loves Park and Roscoe — peaked at $4.14 on June 12, according to AAA's fuelgaugereport.com. Since then, prices lost 14 cents in 12 days.

The state average gained almost 2 cents in that time, and the national average gained a cent.

Industry experts say such market-specific ups and downs are influenced by local conditions and competition. And despite the slight savings over the past two weeks, there no indication that prices would keep going down.

“None of the fundamentals of how we got into this mess have changed,” said David Sykuta, executive director of the Illinois Petroleum Council. “We still have a weak dollar, we import way too much, and we don’t do much ourselves — that means conservation and finding more energy sources.”

But people are driving less. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported last week that Americans drove 1.8 percent less in April than they did the previous April, the sixth month in a row of year-over-year decline.

That drop, however, is not enough to yet make a dent in gas prices. Last year was a record year for travel, AAA Chicago spokeswoman Nicole Niemi said, so this is still a busy year on the road.

July 4 tends to be the peak of the summer driving season, meaning that prices could go up heading into next month.

A proposed modest increase in Saudi Arabia’s oil production was offset by further disruptions in Nigeria, sending oil prices above $136 a barrel today.

Contact staff writer Thomas V. Bona at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.