May 4 (Bloomberg) -- The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations rose to $3.62, an industry survey showed.

The price climbed 15 cents on May 2 from two weeks earlier, according to oil-industry analyst Trilby Lundberg's survey of 7,000 filling stations nationwide. The price was the highest ever reported in her research. Gasoline futures in New York rose to a record $3.0815 a gallon on April 25.

``This time little of it was crude oil, it was the margin recovery for retailers that really needed it and refiners got a bit too,'' Lundberg said in an interview today. ``Refiners needed about another 25 or even 50 cents more per gallon to bring some of their capacity out of mothballs and attract foreign gasoline.''

AAA, the nation's biggest motoring club, said that regular gasoline at the pump reached a record $3.623 gallon on May 1, up 22 percent from $2.965 a year earlier.

Gasoline prices rose as inventories fell for seven consecutive weeks, dropping 11 percent since March 7, as refineries reduced capacity. Stockpiles declined 0.7 percent to 211.1 million barrels last week, the Energy Department reported on April 30.

While prices at the pump may be higher, refiners who make the products aren't pulling in profits. Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. refiner, said first-quarter net income fell 77 percent from a year earlier because of lower margins.

Lower refinery profit margins last month reduced the incentive for refiners to process oil into products including gasoline and diesel fuel.

Margin Falls

The margin for turning a barrel of crude oil into one barrel of gasoline dropped 72 percent in the past year to $8.20 a barrel, based on futures prices.

Margins need to be around $9 a barrel to persuade refiners to turn oil into products like gasoline, said Terence Delaney, a vice president at Sunoco Inc., the largest refiner in the U.S. Northeast, in a conference call May 1.

Crude oil futures rose $3.80, or 3.4 percent, to close at $116.32 a barrel on May 2. Oil touched an intraday record of $119.93 a barrel on April 28. The cost of crude oil determines about 72 percent of the pump price of gasoline, according to the Energy Department.

Lower Consumption

Record gasoline prices are causing consumers to cut back on fuel purchases and spending in general.

On April 29, MasterCard Inc. said U.S. gasoline demand fell 1.6 percent from a year ago, according to its weekly SpendingPulse report. Consumers purchased an average 9.39 million barrels of gasoline a day in the week ended April 25, down from 9.54 million a year earlier.

Gasoline demand compared with a year earlier has dropped in 11 of the past 14 Energy Department supply reports as pump prices rose. Demand typically climbs going into the summer months.

U.S. consumer confidence in April fell to the lowest level in five years, the Conference Board said.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, rose at a 1 percent annual pace, the smallest gain since the second quarter of 2001, according to the Commerce Department.

Politicians and Gas Taxes

With gasoline prices rising, some politicians are prescribing tax changes to help consumers. Presidential candidates, governors and representatives are pushing various methods to cut gasoline taxes, remove tariffs on imports or increase taxes on oil companies.

Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell asked the U.S. government to temporarily suspend the federal ethanol mandate and to lift a 54-cent tariff on imports of the fuel, primarily made from corn in the U.S.

Presidential candidate John McCain joined 22 fellow Republican senators who are seeking a waiver from an ethanol mandate approved late last year, citing skyrocketing food prices. Hillary Clinton has also proposed a ``gas-tax holiday'' this summer. Barack Obama, who opposes the tax holiday, says he would like to tax oil companies and offer a tax cut for working families.

The highest average price for self-serve regular gasoline was $3.95 a gallon in San Francisco, Lundberg said. The lowest was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at $3.39 a gallon. On New York's Long Island, the price was $3.83 a gallon.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Burke in New York at jburke29@bloomberg.net; Vonnie Quinn in New York at vquinn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 4, 2008 16:49 EDT