Philly oil refinery explosion may cause gas prices to ‘wobble’

Trouble with Iran, higher crude prices, a refinery fire in nearby Philadelphia — all problems that may cause gas prices to "wobble," according to one expert.

Gas prices in New Jersey were averaging $2.85-a-gallon last Friday, according to AAA. That is up 2 cents from a week earlier. Last year at this time, Jersey's average was $2.62-a-gallon.

"I would suggest that a lot of the cheaper numbers that you might see from some of the off-price places are going to move higher here in the next 10 days and they're going to do that because we have seen a rally of about 15 cents in wholesale gasoline prices since the fire and explosion at the Philadelphia refinery last week," said Tom Kloza, of the Oil Price Information Service.

Kloza is quick to point out that there is plenty of gas supplies in the world right now. His only caution about prices during the hurricane season is that "it'll be more than a wobble if we get hit by hurricanes at the Gulf Coast ( where a lot of the U.S, refining capacity is located)."

Joe Cutter is the afternoon news anchor on New Jersey 101.5