The gasoline prices rose for the ninth consecutive week in Southern California, which usually has the highest gasoline prices in the United States, the Auto Club said Friday.

The average price of a gallon of regular self-serve unleaded gasoline rose 5.5 cents in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area this week, moving within 14.2 cents of the record high.

Rising crude oil prices helped push the average price to 3.26 dollars on Friday, 38 cents more than last month and 42 cents more than a year ago, according to the latest survey of the region's gas stations by the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The record high of 3.402 dollars was set on May 13, 2006.

"California still has by far the highest gas prices in the country, but other states' prices rose even more rapidly than California over the last week, and Nevada has just become the second state with a gas price average over 3 dollars a gallon," Auto Club spokeswoman Carol Thorp said.

The Auto Club provided this breakdown of gasoline prices in selected portions of California and Nevada as of 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Source: Xinhua