Experts say the price at the pump will continue to climb, so expect to pay more when you fill up.
GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Gregg Laskoski said the average in Tampa is $1.73 a gallon. The Florida average is $1.79 a gallon and the national average is $1.78 a gallon. He said those averages rose $.08 cents this week and you should expect to continue to see the price go up.
"I think conservatively we can expect to see prices peak between $2.25 to $2.40 a gallon, somewhere in that area," Laskoski said.
He said the reason the price is increasing is because refineries are transitioning from their winter to their summer blend in order to use cleaner burning gasoline. The purpose is to cut back on smog and pollution. That plus crude oil prices going up contribute to people paying much higher prices to fill up.
"I think when we hit that threshold when you're back above $2 a gallon it's going to irritate a lot of people and certainly if we go higher than $2.25 or $2.40, you can't feel too good about that. The good news is we're still well below $3 pas price range that we had seen for a long time," Laskoski said.
Laskoski advises consumers to use loyalty cards to save money or go to sites like tampagasprices.com to shop around online for cheaper gas before driving to a gas station to fill up.
