Phila. gas prices steady; oil price spikes about $7

There's a gas-price triple crown to end the week, as the average price at the regional and national levels held steady overnight, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The five-county Philadelphia region saw its price for a gallon of regular no-lead remain at $4.05. In South Jersey, the average stayed at $3.88.

At the national level, the price remained at $3.99.

And it might not feel like much of a price break, but the average price for a gallon of diesel was down a cent overnight in the Philly region, to $4.97.

The average diesel price in South Jersey held at $4.72. And at the national level, the diesel average was down a penny to $4.76.

And we thought we had it tough a year ago: The Philly region's average gas price 12 months ago was $3.11 a gallon. In South Jersey, it was $2.89.

At the national level, the year-ago average was $3.13.

Oil prices shot up nearly $7 a barrel today, extending big gains from the previous day and racing toward an all-time high after a Morgan Stanley analyst predicted that prices could hit $150 by the Fourth of July.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery jumped $6.27 to $134.06 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract rose as high as $134.68.

Today's surge builds on a $5.49 gain yesterday, which was the biggest single-day price increase in the history of the Nymex crude contract.

That spike came as the dollar fell in response to comments by the European Central Bank suggesting that the bank could raise interest rates.

Prices pushed sharply higher today after Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer said he expected strong demand in Asia that could drive prices to $150 by July 4. Shipments from the Middle East are mimicking patterns seen in the third quarter last year, when Morgan Stanley based its "oil price spike" predictions on Atlantic Basin draws, he said.

"We made the same call using the same parameters, but now we are starting from much lower inventory levels," Slorer said today.

"Asia is taking an unprecedented share" of Middle East exports to build up stocks, Slorer wrote in his report.