U.S. Treasury Secretary
John Snow said rising oil prices are creating "head
winds" for continued economic growth.
While the U.S.
economy is "so robust right now that we've blown
right through" the jump in crude oil over the past
year, "clearly these energy prices create head
winds," Snow said Sunday on ABC's This Week
program.
Evidence of continued
upward pressure on U.S. gasoline pump prices also
came from the latest Lundberg Survey of 7,000
filling stations, which shows that gasoline had
climbed about 7 cents a gallon in the past two weeks
to an average of $1.97 a gallon.
"There was a lull in
the gasoline market in the middle of February, in
which crude oil prices went up, but gasoline prices
did not," Trilby Lundberg said in a telephone
interview Sunday. "There's more catch-up with
gasoline to come."
The highest average
gas price in the nation for regular unleaded was
$2.32 per gallon in Honolulu. The lowest was $1.76
in Charleston, S.C.
Seeking to cool
market sentiment, the head of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries said Sunday that the
organization is "concerned" about stubbornly high
prices that defy what he described as a
well-supplied market and adequate crude stocks
worldwide.
The statement by
Sheik Ahmad Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah, OPEC's
president and secretary general, was issued as a
clear attempt to dampen speculative buying.
But more bullish oil
was poured on the fire Saturday, when Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said OPEC countries could fix
a price for crude in a range of $40 to $50 per
barrel, adding that low petroleum prices are a thing
of the past.
Crude oil for April
delivery rose to $53.78 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange on Friday, the highest close
since Oct. 26 and a gain of 4.5 percent over the
last week.
Oil consumption is
growing as the U.S. and Chinese economies expand,
boosting demand for gasoline and jet fuel.
Oil prices are "way,
way too high," and "act like a tax" on consumers,
Snow said.
Bloomberg News and
the Associated Press Contributed to This Report.
