Sudden Spike in Gas Prices, but Increases May Be Short-Lived

And according to the AAA daily gauge report, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is 17 cents more today than just a year ago, at a time when Americans appear to be driving substantially more than last summer.

In the last week, the price rose approximately 7 cents, reaching an average $3.55 on Friday for a gallon of regular grade, the report said. Prices range widely around the country. In South Carolina, for instance, a gallon of regular averages $3.21; in California drivers pay $3.99.

“We’re going to get a little sticker shock at the pump,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com, a Web site that monitors gasoline prices. “We’ve moved up on wholesale prices anywhere from 35 to 60 cents a gallon since June 28. This summer we are looking at average prices of somewhere between $3.45 and $3.75, and unfortunately I think we will approach the high end of that range pretty shortly.”

The recent price increases can be attributed mainly to higher global crude prices that have been creeping up because of the unrest in Egypt, brief export failures in Libya and Iraq and disruptions of Nigeria’s oil pipelines. Egypt is not a major oil producer, but instability there raises fears of a possible blockage of the Suez Canal, a major thoroughfare for oil exports and spreading unrest in the region.

West Texas Intermediate, the main American benchmark, has been rising for more than a week, partly because higher demand among summer vacationers has caused a sudden large drop in American inventories. Many experts say they believe that the American benchmark price, which has been depressed relative to global benchmarks in recent years, could remain somewhat higher for a while because new pipelines and railroad lines are gradually relieving bottlenecks for oil produced and stored in the Midwest.

In storage and delivery centers like Cushing, Okla., for example, excess inventories of landlocked oil that could not be easily transported made the oil cheap. But now that supplies are moving around the country more regularly, wholesale and retail prices are rising.

Stockpiles in Cushing fell by 2.7 million barrels last week alone, reaching the lowest levels of the year.

In recent years, a weaker economy and more fuel-efficient vehicles combined to lower American gas consumption, before this summer’s blip of vacation driving bucked the trend. And few oil experts expect a long-term increase in oil and gasoline prices. The rapid growth in United States oil production, coupled with sluggish demand in Europe and slowing growth in China and much of the developing world, is expected to restrain prices. Some experts predict a decline in oil prices over the next year.

“You will see oil prices hover somewhere in the $70 to $100 range,” Harbir S. Chhina, an executive vice president for Cenovus Energy, a major Canadian oil company, predicted for the United States oil benchmark in an interview last month.

The United States benchmark has broken out of that band for the first this time year in recent days to just over $105, representing about a $20 rise from last July. Crude prices, in the United States and abroad, rose approximately 1 percent on Friday.

Global oil production remains robust and some recent supply problems are easing. Two Libyan oil export terminals that were shut down in recent weeks by militias and disgruntled employees have resumed operations. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, a major outlet of oil from Iraq’s northern oil fields, is returning to operations this week after being suspended since June 21 because of a leak and an interruption of repair work after an ambush on a crew of technicians.

Oil experts warn, however, that there is no telling when the next political crisis will come in the Middle East or North Africa.

“Oil price predictions used to be about oil consumption and markets, but now it’s about where the next riot will break out,” said Stale Tungesvik, a senior executive at Statoil, the Norwegian oil giant. “It’s so much more politically based, and that makes it a mystery to everyone.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 12, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a senior executive at Statoil. He is Stale Tungesvik, not Tugesvik. It also misspelled the name of a Canadian oil company. It is Cenovus Energy, not Cenovis Energy.

Gun Shop Owners Report Spike in Sales as Enthusiasts Fear Possible New Laws

At Bud’s Gun Shop in Maryland, a message on the Web site said that customer service was “completely overwhelmed” and it discouraged customers from calling or e-mailing.

And on GunBroker.com, an Oracle .223 that normally retails for around $650 had been bid up to $1,175 with three days left in the auction.

With gun-control legislation getting more serious discussion than it has in years, gun sales are spiking as enthusiasts stock up in advance of possible restrictions.

Gun sales have been increasing over the past five years, with marked increases around the 2008 and 2012 elections, and after mass shootings like the one in Aurora, Colo., and now in Newtown, Conn.

“The largest factor by far is fears over a potential change in gun laws — that’s what’s driving most guns enthusiasts or even first-time buyers to go buy a gun,” said Nima Samadi, senior guns and ammunition analyst for the research firm IBISWorld.

There is increasing demands for guns in the United States. Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted 16.45 million background checks for firearm sales through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, a 14 percent jump from the previous year. In the first 11 months of this year, the bureau conducted 16.8 million background checks, a record since the system’s founding in 1998.

Since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, though, a few companies associated with gun sales have backed away. Cerberus Capital Management put the company that makes the Bushmaster, a gun used in the shootings, up for sale on Tuesday, saying, “The Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level.”

Dick’s Sporting Goods temporarily ceased selling all guns in its location closest to Newtown, and has also put a hold on sales of so-called modern sporting rifles, which include semiautomatic guns, nationwide.

And Deseret Digital Media, which owns KSL.com, a Web site that has been criticized by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for allowing unregulated gun sales, said it was suspending classified advertisements for guns.

Elsewhere, though, consumers are hurrying to buy guns, leading to some models being out of stock, warnings of shipping and customer-service delays, and significant premiums on assault rifles.

“We are seeing a total madhouse of buying everything in sight,” said Bob Irwin, owner of the Gun Store, a Las Vegas shooting range and retailer. Thursday, he said, was the largest sales day in the history of the store, which has been open for 30 years. “We have not only a run on the guns, but a run on ammunition.”

Mr. Irwin has begun limiting how much of some types of ammunition customers can buy, and he has canceled employees’ days off to handle the demand.

Walmart, the largest retailer of guns and ammunition in the United States, indicated that several semiautomatic guns were out of stock at locations across the country. Kory Lundberg, a spokesman, said the company was not sold out of guns altogether, but had low inventory in some situations. Walmart carries guns in about half its stores, and about one-third carry so-called modern sporting rifles, the category including the Bushmaster and other AR-15 weapons.

Other retailers around the country were selling out of guns and accessories. On Friday on ImpactGuns.com, the Bushmaster .223 was out of stock. Davidson’s, a supplier to gun retailers, placed a notice on its Web site that said it was seeing “unprecedented demand,” and at MidwayUSA.com, more than 100 parts for AR-15 guns were out of stock and on back order.

On AR15.com, a gun-enthusiast Web site, a user posted that a barrel for a gun disappeared from an online shopping cart overnight, and is now on back order. Another user, named warplg8654, responded, “Dealers can’t keep anything in stock for what I think are obvious reasons given the current political climate.”

When a user called JazzFan asked whether paying a $100 premium for a Stag Model 3 was a good deal, another user said that seemed “reasonable with all of the panic buying.”

Gavin Gear, the founder of the enthusiast site Northwest Gun, said gun owners were feeling “apprehension.”

“People are trying to think ahead, and if they want to own a particular firearm and they think it’s going to be outlawed or restricted, they’re more likely to buy now,” he said.