he national price for regular, self-service gasoline rose 6.3 cents over the last week and is up 67 cents from a year ago, the federal Energy Information Administration said Monday.he latest pump price beats the old record of $3.22 a gallon set last May 21, according to the EIA's weekly survey of fuel costs at service stations around the country.

Retail gas prices are following crude oil, which jumped 24% in a month and accounts for about two-thirds of the cost of making gasoline.

The EIA Tuesday releases its monthly energy forecast and has said it will revise upward its prior estimate that gasoline will peak at $3.40 a gallon this spring. However, Guy Caruso, who heads the agency, says he does not think the average pump price will climb to $4 a gallon on a national level.

Meanwhile, the average price for diesel fuel soared 16.1 cents to a record $3.82 a gallon, up $1.13 from a year ago, the EIA said. It was the third week in a row that diesel reached an all-time high.

In the EIA's latest weekly survey, gasoline was the most expensive on the West Coast at an average $3.46 a gallon, up 7.1 cents. San Francisco had the highest city price at $3.61, up 7.6 cents.

The Rocky Mountain states had the cheapest regional price at $3.11 a gallon, up 2.1 cents. Denver had the best city bargain at the pump, up 1.1 cents to $3.04.

On Monday, crude prices surged to another record after the Commerce Department said wholesale sales jumped 2.7% in January, their biggest increase in four years, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The strong sales report suggested to oil traders that the struggling economy may be doing better than thought.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose $2.75 to settle at a record $107.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier setting a new trading record of $108.21.

Energy investors shrugged off a relative stabilization of the dollar and a cooling in tensions between Venezuela and its neighbors Colombia and Ecuador.

Many analysts believe speculative investing attracted by the weak dollar is the primary reason oil has risen so far so fast in recent months. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is falling.

"We've got a Fed(eral Reserve) meeting on the 18th that could see a sizable rate cut," said Brad Samples, an analyst with Summit Energy Services, in Louisville "So, it's not over."

Indeed, while the dollar rose against the euro on Monday, many investors believe the greenback is likely to keep falling as the Fed continues to cut rates. Many analysts believe the rise in crude prices is not supported by the market's underlying fundamentals, noting that supplies are generally rising while demand is falling.

"By gobbling up everything in sight, (investors) are pushing food and fuel prices to ruinously high levels," said Peter Beutel, president of the energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, in a research note.

Investors shrugged off a weekend cooling of tensions in South America, where Venezuela said Sunday it was restoring full diplomatic ties with Colombia after they were broken off following a cross-border Colombian attack on a leftist rebel camp in Ecuador.

Last week, rebels shut down a Colombian oil pipeline in retaliation for the Colombian raid into Ecuador. Venezuela threatened to slash trade and nationalize Colombian-owned businesses, and Venezuela and Ecuador briefly sent troops to their borders with Colombia.

The potential for conflict involving Venezuela, an OPEC member and major U.S. oil supplier, helped push oil higher last week.

"The Venezuelan production was at risk there," Samples said.

Other energy futures also rose Monday. April heating oil futures rose 2.64 cents to settle at $2.9734 a gallon while April gasoline futures rose 2.06 cents to settle at $2.7149 a gallon.

April natural gas futures jumped 25.5 cents to $10.024 per 1,000 cubic feet, the first time a natural gas contract has closed above $10 since January 2006. Natural gas was following oil higher, but also rising in anticipation of cooler temperatures across the Midwest and Northeast, analysts said.

In London, Brent crude futures rose $1.78 to $104.16 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

In a separate survey, the national average price of a gallon of gas rose 0.7 cents overnight to $3.222 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Last May, prices peaked at $3.227 as surging demand and a string of refinery outages raised concerns about supplies.(See explainer, above top, for why the gas price reports differ).