Petroleum prices finished 2012 down slightly from the same period in 2011 and are expected to remain mostly stable this year.
The market price for crude oil last week was down 7 percent from the year-earlier period to about $91 a barrel, finishing in a range it traveled through most of 2012. Oil traded above $100 a barrel for about one-fifth of the year and hit a low of just under $80 briefly in June.
Consumers should get accustomed to comparatively high gasoline prices - a major component of petroleum processing - because of high costs for oil extraction, analysts say.
"We have tremendous reserves because of shale, but those aren't cheap barrels to pull out of the ground," said Stephen Schork, an independent analyst in Montgomery County who edits an online energy newsletter.
"Costs of production are pretty high as we produce more barrels from hard-to-get places, like shale and offshore," said Andrew Reed, of Energy Security Analysis Inc., a Boston-area research firm. "The underlying crude price brings up gasoline prices."
Regional gas prices at midweek were about 5 percent higher than the first week of 2011, according to AAA motor club.
Fuel prices have held at relatively high levels - from a consumer standpoint - because a substantial amount of East Coast refinery capacity was lost in 2012 and more gasoline has been shipped to the Northeast from the Gulf Coast area, Mr. Schork said.
If adjusted for inflation, he said, gasoline prices actually are lower than they were in 1980.
"It's all relative," Mr. Schork said. "Gasoline is actually pretty darn cheap right now."
Both analysts expect oil prices to remain relatively steady through the year.
Mr. Reed predicted oil prices will average about 11 percent less than the 2012 average.
Mr. Schork expects per-barrel prices to hover in the $85 to $95 range.
"There is a lot of supply on the market," he said. "I don't expect a lot of price volatility this year."
Contact the writer: jhaggerty@ timesshamrock.comCharting the economy
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