The U.S. average price for regular gasoline slipped a penny to $2.63 per gallon, $0.82 higher than the price a year ago. The average on the West Coast, which includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, slipped a cent and a half to $2.87 per gallon and the price in California dropped two cents to $2.92 per gallon.
      The national average price for diesel fuel dipped a cent to $2.78 per gallon, the lowest level in over a month. The average is $0.16 per gallon higher than last year. The highest average occurred on the West Coast at $2.89 per gallon. The average price in California was $2.95 per gallon, a drop of less than a penny from last week.
      Jobless numbers eased to ten percent in November, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.  While this would seem to point to economic recovery, some  labor analysts point out that this may be due to job seekers becoming ineligible for unemployment or taking part-time or temporary work.
      If holiday spending is any indication, then things may be looking up, indeed.  Retailers registered about $10.66 billion in sales Friday, up 0.5% from a year ago, according to a report Saturday from sales and traffic tracking firm ShopperTrak.  Online sales were up an estimated 35 percent over 2008 figures.
      The domestic crude oil price finished last week's reporting period at $75.95, down 88 cents from the week prior and almost $20.00 less than one year ago.  The estimated number of days' supply in storage has crept up to 24.5 days, compared with 21.9 days worth of fuel one year ago. This doesn't appear to bother OPEC, which has expressed satisfaction with current crude oil price levels.

Chris Nobles
Commercial Fueling
Nella Oil Company