What's Behind The Recent Hike In Gas Prices?04:15

 A gas station in Berlin, Vt., sold gas for $3.72 on Feb. 16. On average, regular gas is going for $3.60 a gallon nationwide.  (Toby Talbot/AP)




That's driven crude oil prices in the U.S. to around $106 a barrel. But Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at the investment firm Oppenheimer and Co., says there's an even bigger reason than Iran.




Sunoco, Conoco and Hess have all retired outmoded, unprofitable refineries in the eastern U.S. and Caribbean. The shuttered refineries were not retrofitted to meet the requirements for removing sulfur from high-sulfur crude. As the supplies of "sweet" low-sulfur crude that they could refine have contracted and become more expensive, they became money losers.


And, according to Verleger, a big European refinery that sent gasoline to the U.S. has also closed.

Gheit says there's still another interesting ingredient to consider.

"Because the global market is much more lucrative than the domestic market, for the first time in our history we are not importing gasoline," Gheit says. "Not only are we not importing gasoline, we're actually a net exporter of gasoline."

So while gasoline supplies are short and prices are rising, big U.S. oil companies are exporting gasoline. Ironically, that's because natural gas prices in the U.S. are so low. American refiners are using this cheap, domestic natural gas to produce the heat needed to crack crude oil into products like gasoline.

"That enables us to land gasoline in Mexico, for example, cheaper than Mexican refiners can produce it for," Gheit says.

It's part of the very surprising energy advantage the U.S. is developing thanks to techniques like fracking and horizontal drilling, which are producing once-unimaginable amounts of natural gas inside the U.S. But will the higher oil and gasoline prices stall the U.S. recovery? Yergin thinks they could.

"Every penny increase in the price of gasoline takes a billion dollars out of the pockets of consumers over a year," he says.

That could hurt spending and cost jobs across the economy. But Verleger is more optimistic.

"For the first time in my life I'd say that this time higher oil prices might actually stimulate a little more economic activity rather than a little less economic activity," he says.

That's because the higher prices are causing many people to buy fuel-efficient cars, boosting the output in one of the country's major industries.

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