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Stubbornly high gas pump prices may seem like an unwelcome home guest staying in his home, come January.

Drivers in many States already pay at least $3 per gallon for regular and analysts don't expect any relief soon. This is because the crude oil has ranged between $83 and $89 per barrel since Thanksgiving.

The average national regular gasoline was $2.981 per gallon Monday, according to a survey by AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price information service. This is the same as last week and more than a penny over a month ago. A year ago the average was $2.59 per gallon.

Motorists in Washington, California, Hawaii, Illinois, and Maine are among the most 3.092 higher - price $ per gallon to $3.618 per gallon. Rocky Mountain, Texas and parts of the Midwest have cheaper gas, ranging from $2.738 per gallon to $2.827 per gallon.

A new study business management society PortiaGroup with data provided by OPIS finds the average U.S. household is spend about $ 305 000 gasoline December 14% last December and 76 per cent more than December 2008. Gasoline takes a bite of median income of households this year made Beaver: 7.4%, compared to 6.5% last year to 4.2% two years ago, says the study.

Energy Analyst Jim Ritterbusch estimates that the average national one gallon will typically range from $2.90 per gallon and $3.07 per gallon in February.

"We will see prices relatively high for some time here", he said. "We saw a stronger than expected economy and which tends to augur towards stronger price of gasoline, unfortunately, despite the fact that unemployment is still high."

Tom Kloza, editor and analyst oil Chief OPIS, expected the price to fall during the winter and then begin to climb once more. It provide price between $3.25 and $3.75 per gallon from March to may, preventing an unexpected world economic issue. Prices at the pump could rise above $4 per gallon again in some States for peak driving season if oil prices continue to climb.

Oil prices climbed again on Monday, as thirst China energy showed little sign of be tempered. Platts, the McGraw-Gill energy, said information demand for oil to China in November reached a record high of 9.3 million barrels per day.

Traders are also followed stock market indices on where the world economy can be directed to the new year. Stocks were slightly higher in the afternoon Monday trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 30 points.

Oil reference for January delivery rose from 79 cents to settle at $88.81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Since contract expired Monday, many traders moved their efforts on the contract in February, where prices have increased 77 cents to settle at $89.37 per barrel.

In the other Nymex trading in January, contracts, heating oil added 1.58 cents to settle at $2.4895 a gallon gasoline futures gained 6 cents to settle at $2.3778 a gallon and gas acquired 17.1 cents to settle at $4.129 by 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude rose $1.07 to settle at $92.74 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

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