Well Lubed by Oil...

After pushing the $100/barrel threshold last week, oil closed today on the market at $96.89/barrel. The national average for gas is now at $3.37/gallon.

Now, let's remember this post I had back in October of 2008.

To re-interate, in July of '08 oil peaked at $147.27/barrel and gas peaked at $4.11/gallon, nationally ($4.65/gallon in my area of California). Using that as the benchmark, if oil is currently at $96.89/barrel then that means it is at 65.7% of it's high. This SHOULD translate into a 65.7% of $4.11/gallon of gas.

But 65.7% of the national peak of $4.11 is... $2.70. And 65.7% of my area's peak of $4.65 is... $3.06.

So, WHY is the current national average 67-cents more than it should be?

And, WHY is my local area gas prices currently at $3.69 to $3.79/gallon, depending on the gas station (63- to 73-cents more than it should be)?