Gasoline demand increased 2.4 percent last week when compared with the previous week, according to a survey by MasterCard SpendingPulse.
Compared with the same week last year, demand fell 3.2 percent. The survey has shown eight consecutive weeks of year-over-year declines in weekly demand as gas prices continue to climb.
The average retail price for a gallon [...]

Oil prices settled lower for the third straight day as investors weighed expectations of higher output against the market’s ability to quench soaring global demand.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell 60 cents to settle at $134.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline hovered at [...]

Crude oil futures swung wildly, rising to a record and then tumbling as investors wrestled with whether they should put stock in Saudi Arabia’s promise to boost production. Retail gas prices rose to a record $4.08 a gallon.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell 25 cents to settle at $134.61 on the New York Mercantile [...]

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey raised its crude oil price outlook for 2008 to an average $115 per barrel from $90 per barrel, and to $110 per barrel next year from $85 per barrel.
“We are raising our crude oil price expectations to reflect near-term supply realities, but also near- to intermediate-term demand responses that may not have [...]

Targa Resources Partners LP and its subsidiary Targa Resources Partners Finance Corporation announced an offering in the United States to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), to persons outside of the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act, and [...]

Shares of several U.S. aluminum producers moved higher Friday as low inventories and tight supply raised prospects for continued price hikes.
Barclays Capital said in a research report that demand growth for aluminum, though slower this year than last, has remained robust.
Also, consumer inventories of aluminum are at relatively low levels in both the U.S. and [...]

Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering raising its crude oil output to about 10 million barrels a day. The Middle East Economic Survey, a regional energy and finance newsletter, says that would mean increasing current output by about half a million barrels a day.
Although the Saudis have repeatedly insisted their massive oil reserves are not [...]

In its monthly market report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said oil’s recent volatility — the price for a barrel has swung back and forth in a $10 range over the past week alone — “reconfirms the view that current price levels do not reflect supply and demand realities.”
Looking ahead to the second [...]

Oil prices pulled back after OPEC questioned whether crude can remain so high through the rest of the year and the dollar gained against the euro.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery sank $1.88 to settle at $134.86 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
At the gas pump, the average national price for a gallon of [...]

Exxon Mobil is getting out of the retail gasoline business, a market where profits have gotten tougher because of high crude oil prices.
The world’s largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it will sell its 820-company owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers to gasoline distributors across the U.S.
The Irving-based company didn’t [...]