U.S. Gas Prices Hit All-Time High

Hovering Above $3 Per Gallon, Price Exceeds Post-Katrina Spike

(CBS/AP)  Nationwide gas prices hit an all-time high in the last two weeks, rising nearly 2 cents to just over $3 per gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.

The national average for self-serve regular stood at $3.0150 a gallon Friday, up 1.98 cents in the last two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

The price exceeded the previous high of $3.0117 set in September last year, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

A gallon of mid-grade gasoline averaged around $3.12, and premium at nearly $3.22.

Lundberg told CBS Radio News, that some of the cause of the two-cent increase in average price of self-serve regular gasoline are domestic production disturbances.

"We not only have the ethanol blending requirement this year, which adds cost to all of gasoline, it does it more in the summertime," Lundberg said. "In addition, there was some refining capacity down in recent days due to weather and operational problems."

Nationwide, the lowest price for regular was $2.77 a gallon in Charleston, S.C., while the highest — $3.28 a gallon — was in San Diego.

Although the new price seems to be a record-breaker, Lundberg says when you adjust former highs for inflation, a previous price spike takes the title.

"This price slightly exceeds the all-time high price of last year caused by the hurricane damage," Lundberg told CBS Radio News. "But, it is about 15 cents lower than the real high, inflation adjusted, back in March of '81."