The president of Indianola-based Double Quick says he doesn’t know how high gasoline prices will go, but he says several factors are contributing to them.
The price of regular gas has been creeping upward in recent weeks — from around $3 a gallon at Greenwood stores in early July to more than $3.40 a gallon Tuesday.
“I believe you’re seeing the stock market move up and people trading in energy futures. ... You have so many people trading in them that crude is coming back up,” Double Quick’s Tom Gresham said.
Fear over the path of Hurricane Ernesto as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico has caused concerns over available supply, he said.
A recent pipeline explosion in Iraq has caused crude prices and gasoline prices to go up, and a recent Chevron refinery fire in San Francisco might cause more increases, Gresham said.
As to how much further prices might rise, he said, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
On Tuesday, at Greenwood’s Double Quick No. 25, at the intersection of U.S. 82 and Sycamore Street, the price had reached $3.42 per gallon.
Noting how much lower prices were in early July, Jimmy Holston called the recent trend “ridiculous.”
Holston, who works at the Nissan truck plant near Canton, needs his car. Each trip is 166 miles round trip, and he said he can make two trips per tankful.
Ricky Darby was rushing Tuesday morning to top off the tank of his 20-year-old Cadillac, and he seemed resigned to his fate of having to make do with less gas. “That’s the price you have to pay for it,” said Darby as he put a small amount of fuel in his vehicle.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
