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ATLANTA (CNN) -
Retail gas prices broke their all-time high, surging more than 38 cents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to an average of $3.01 per gallon, but are likely to back down a bit in the next few days, a national survey said Sunday.
"That price surge is due to the supply shrinkage caused by Hurricane Katrina," Lundberg said. Her survey was carried out Sept. 9 and August 26 at about 7,000 gas stations.
Lundberg predicted that retail gasoline prices will drop in coming days.
"From about September 2, most wholesale prices charged to stations have been dropping, and we'll see the pass-through on the street very soon."
Wholesale prices have been dropping because demand has fallen -- as it always does in September -- and many of the refineries and pipelines affected by the hurricane have returned to operation, she said.
"More than half of the affected refining capacity that was down in the Gulf (of Mexico) is back and virtually all the affected pipeline capacity is back," she said.
Still, she predicted, prices will not return to pre-hurricane levels any time soon.
Drivers in Jackson, Miss., paid the least, at an average of $2.61 per gallon of self-serve regular; drivers on Long Island the most, at $3.35.
Here are some other prices: Seattle: $2.86; Atlanta: $2.91; Los Angeles: $2.95; Denver: $2.99; Chicago: $3.04; Boston: $3.24; Washington: $3.27
The Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries is slated to meet Sept. 19, where it is expected to boost capacity by another 500,000 barrels per day, Lundberg said.
In addition, demand for oil from China and India is expected to drop in response to the higher prices, she said.
So far, Georgia is the sole state in the nation to remove its taxes on gasoline, an effort to ease the pain for drivers.
The world's cheapest gasoline can be found in Venezuela, where a gallon costs 12 cents; the most expensive is in the Netherlands, where a gallon costs $6.48.
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Click here for more on Oil Crunch: 2005.
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