The trading price of crude oil inched up slightly last week as news of Tropical Storm Lee threatened Gulf refineries. Tropical Storm Lee caused multiple companies to shutdown and evacuate refineries in the Gulf of Mexico cutting off 48 percent of output quotas.

Hurricane Katia has yet to make landfall, but is threatening the East coast of the U.S. Currently a Category 2 hurricane, Katia has the potential to damage refineries along the East coast, which could push oil and gas prices higher. Crude oil closed Friday at $86.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange--$1.08 more than the week prior.

"Retail gas prices rose an average of 5 cents last week in the Southeast and are expected to increase further this week after Lee disrupted Gulf refining," said Jessica Brady, spokesperson, AAA Auto Club South. "Normally, oil would trade at higher prices as a result of the storms, but bearish economic news is keeping downward pressure on prices."

The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline is $3.66 a gallon, 6 cents more than last week. Florida’s average price of $3.61, Georgia’s average price of $3.58, and Tennessee’s average price of $3.48 all increased 5 cents from last week, respectively. Some discounters in the 'Boro flip-flop prices day to day. One in particular jumps from $3.45 to $3.35, and are at the lower figure now. Another on Memorial seems to be holding steady at $3.35 per gallon for regular gas.