Crude oil prices topped $90 per barrel for the first time Thursday, the latest record in a two-month run-up that added 10 cents to California's gasoline prices in the past week alone.

Oil, the lifeblood of the world's economy, has now jumped nearly $20 per barrel since late August, carried higher and higher by a mix of speculative trading, tight supplies and Mideast turmoil. Oil closed at $90.46 Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"I knew it was going to be a nasty quarter," said John Kingston, who directs oil coverage for the Platts energy information service. "But I didn't think we were going to be here."



In contrast, gasoline prices aren't in record territory. But they are climbing. In California, they leapt 10 cents in the past week before leveling off on Wednesday and Thursday.

The state's average price for gasoline stands at $3.16 for a gallon of regular, according to the AAA auto club. For that gallon of gas, drivers are paying about $3.29 in San Francisco, $3.20 in San Jose and $3.19 in Oakland.

A year ago, the state's average was $2.47 per gallon.

"The trend of gradually higher gasoline prices with no real end in sight - that AAA has been forecasting since early this decade - seems likely to continue, which may intensify the United States' need to develop a more sustainable energy policy," said Sean Comey, spokesman for AAA of Northern California.

Many analysts blame the recent increase in oil and gasoline prices on a bull market run wild.


But Kingston said the high prices reflect real problems in the oil market.

The world's balance between supply and demand is tight, oil supplies in the United States are low and for various reasons, many oil-producing countries can't or won't increase production.

"You'd think at these prices there would be more supply coming on," Kingston said. "But all these producers have constraints. There's no extra spigot to turn on."

Supply issues also are pushing gasoline prices higher.

In California, several of the state's refineries that turn crude into gasoline have scaled back production this month in order to conduct scheduled maintenance.

That means they have to buy gasoline on the open market to make up for their lost production. But a spike in the price of oil usually causes wholesale gas prices to jump. Prices at the corner gas station soon follow suit.

"In this kind of situation, where you've got such high crude oil prices, when the refiners need to buy fuel, they have to pay a lot more," said Claudia Chandler, spokeswoman for the California Energy Commission.