After staying pretty much locked in place to start 2013, Sacramento-area gas prices moved up over the past week.
In its weekly report, national gas price tracker GasBuddy.com put the average price of gas in the area at $3.52 a gallon, up 6.1 cents from the previous week.
GasBuddy data are based on a survey of 720 stations in the area.
The current at-the-pump price is still 11.7 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, but it's 9.7 cents higher than last month.
Nationally, GasBuddy said, the average price of gas increased 4.5 cents to $3.31 a gallon - up 4.5 cents from last month but 6.7 cents lower than a year ago.
"The national average has picked up in the last week on the apparent start of refinery maintenance season," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy. "Refinery production has taken a hit in the last week as companies begin looking toward the summer driving season, utilizing this time of year for maintenance and any upgrades before gasoline demand races higher for the summer season."
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