Monthly Archives: March 2013

The US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) says that the recent rise in gasoline prices was due in part to an increase in the cost of crude oil and the “crack price spread”. The average U.S. retail price for regular motor gasoline is up about 45 cents per gallon since the start of 2013, reaching $3.75 per gallon on February 18.  Crack price spread is defined as: “Crack spreads are differences between wholesale petroleum product prices and crude oil prices. These spreads are often used to estimate refining margins. Crack spreads are a simple measure based on one or two products produced in a refinery (usually gasoline and distillate fuel). They do not take into consideration all refinery product revenues and exclude refining costs other than the cost of crude oil.”

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