CAMARILLO, Calif. – Retail gasoline prices rose about 5 cents a gallon nationwide in the past two weeks as refiners retooled some facilities to start producing home heating oil, the Lundberg Survey reported Friday.

The average price of gasoline Friday, including all grades and taxes, was $1.56 per gallon, up 5.47 cents since Aug. 24. Prices rose by a similar amount in mid-August. The increase is the result of refineries shutting down for repairs and to prepare for the fall and
winter heating oil season, analyst Trilby Lundberg told the Associated Press.

Retail gasoline prices declined for most of the summer after peaking on May 18 at $1.76. They bottomed out in August at $1.45. Prices are highest in the Midwest and lowest in the East. The West saw the greatest increases in the last two weeks.

The national weighted average price of gasoline, including taxes, at self-serve pumps Friday was about $1.53 a gallon for regular unleaded, $1.63 for mid grade and $1.72 for premium. As of Sept. 7 the survey no longer includes full service gas prices in the national averages. Lundberg said full-service prices were being cut because they account for only about 1 percent of sales nationwide. If those numbers had been included in Friday’s statistics, the weighted average price would have been about four-tenths of a cent higher, she said.