May 15, 2012:

The lowest May gasoline supplies in the Western U.S. in 20 years have prices climbing again in most places west of the Rocky Mountains, even as they continue to fall across the rest of the nation. In California, pump prices for regular gas have jumped 13.5 cents since last week. Analysts blamed refinery problems for the new spike in fuel costs. The state once had as many as 14 refineries producing gasoline for motorists, but in recent years, the number has dropped to 12. Now, one-third of those refineries have been in temporary shutdowns, mostly because of maintenance.

As if that wasn't bad enough, BP is still struggling to reopen its Cherry Point refinery in Washington, where a fire caused a shutdown that began in March. That has forced some Washington gasoline suppliers to look toward California's limited fuel stocks. California and the West Coast "is the one region in the U.S. that still has a little Jason Voorhees from 'Friday the 13th' in its system. Price spikes there are not dead yet," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in New Jersey.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in California is $4.345, up from $4.210 a week ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. In Washington, the average price for a gallon of regular has climbed 12.7 cents to $4.201 a gallon since last week. In Oregon, a gallon of regular has jumped 15.6 cents to $4.169 during the same period. The problem can be seen in the Energy Department's statistics on the nation's gasoline supplies. The report breaks the U.S. into five regions, referred to as PADDs. That's an old federal acronym that stands for Petroleum Administration for Defense District.

California, with its huge number of motorists, accounts for most of PADD 5, which also includes Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. The most recent statistics show the region with 26.13 million barrels of fuel on tap; that's the lowest amount for the month of May since 1992, according to the Energy Department records. The national average for gasoline is still falling, off another 5 cents since last week to $3.727 a gallon. Analysts differed over whether the supply problems and the West Coast price spike were only temporary. Kloza said he thought the price rise would end in "weeks, not months." Others weren't so sure.

Charles Langley, a gasoline analyst with the San Diego-based Utility Consumers' Action Network, said the current California fuel prices were the perverse result of refinery system that allows prices to rise even when oil prices are dropping and fuel demand is down. "With only 12 refineries in California, any shutdown becomes a major problem," Langley said. "This is all about supply and demand. They restrict supply and demand more money."

By Los Angeles Times