Gas and oil prices both up as week ends

ALBANY — Whether because of an oil price jump after the U.S. missile attack on a Syrian airbase Thursday night or the usual spring sting, metro Albany and Georgia ended the week up significantly from the previous week.

Saturday morning’s benchmark by AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report had gas averaging $2.242 a gallon in the five-county metro Albany area, up nearly a dime — 9.7 cents — from the previous Saturday and up 12.2 cents from March 8.

Statewide, the average was also sharply higher. Georgia motorists were paying an average $2.272 a gallon, up 7.9 cents from the previous Saturday. GasBuddy’s Fuel Insights survey had the week-to-week increase pegged at 8.2 cents. On March 8, Georgia drivers were looking at gas prices around $2.20.

The two surveys were nearly a penny apart nationally Saturday, with AAA setting the U.S. average at $2.385 and GasBuddy estimating $2.393. Both cases were up more than 6.5 cents in a week and were about 8 cents more per gallon than the previous month.

After the airstrike in Syria in retaliation for Tuesday’s gas attack by the Syrian government that killed more than 80 people and injured dozens of others, U.S. crude prices, a large component of the cost of fuel, spiked to $52.70 a barrel, GasBuddy officials noted. It settled Friday at the end of trading at $52.24, which was its highest level since March 7 and a 3 percent increase over the week.

“It is too early to know how severe or how long the impact to oil prices may be,” Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst, said after the initial crude oil surge Thursday, noting that “in the past, oil prices hate turmoil.”