The Ohio Triple A reports Ohioans are paying $2.80 a gallon for regular gasoline right now. That's up eighteen cents from a week ago. The Ohio Petroleum Council's Terry Flemming says the reason for the increase is higher crude oil prices due to speculators betting on oil futures.

"They are betting that the economy... has somewhat stabilized. Not just in the United States, but in China and India and some of the other large consuming nations and they're betting that it's going to get even better as the year goes on and by the end of the year we're going to see the start of a recovery. That being the case, they're betting that oil will be higher and if they lose, they could lose a lot of money. So now, that's driving a little bit of the price because we're producing record amounts of gasoline and demand in the United States, while up somewhat, is still not up to where it was last year or two years ago," Flemming explained.

He said if Ohioans start driving more, the prices could increase due to higher demand. Just a year ago at this time, Ohioans were paying more than $3.95 a gallon for regular unleaded.