It’s official: Gas crosses $4

By MSN Money staff and wire reports

The average price of a gallon of regular gas crept past $4 for the first time in U.S. history over the weekend, and that doesn’t reflect the furious two-day surge that pushed oil prices to a record-shattering $139 a barrel on Friday.

That, says one expert, will add as much as 20 cents in the coming weeks.

While Americans who have to drive will feel the biggest squeeze, the increased prices also translate into higher costs for consumers and businesses, who will be forced to shoulder increased costs for food and anything else that needs to be transported.

"I don’t think we’ve felt quite the full impact of $138 or $139 a barrel oil," said Jason Toews, co-founder of fuel price research site GasBuddy.com.

Gas prices rolled past their latest threshold Sunday, increasing to $4.005 a gallon overnight from $3.988 the day before, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

• Talk back: What should be done about high gas prices?

Of course, drivers in many parts of the country have already been paying well above that price for some time.

California has seen some of the highest prices; a gallon there now averages $4.436 a gallon, the most in the country. Missourians are paying the least at the pump, with a gallon in the Show-Me State selling for a relatively cheap $3.802 a gallon. A total of 15 states have crossed the $4 mark.

Prices have risen by about 20 cents in the past three weeks, according to a report by the Lundberg Survey released Sunday.

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