PLAINFIELD, Ind. - On Monday, when Jay Ricker, owner of an Indiana BP gasoline station, hiked the price of regular gasoline four cents to reach $3.44, he was not the only retailer who raised prices. But what irritated some of his customers was that the price of crude oil dropped nearly a dollar that day, the Associated Press reports.

The price at the pump is factored by a number of things, including the cost of crude oil. Analysts predict the cost of gasoline will jump even more in the next few months.

Because oil and gas are commodities, their prices fluctuate every second at the New York Mercantile Exchange and other trading groups. Gasoline stations base their prices on what it costs to produce the fuel, but also on what it will cost to replenish supplies.

Oil accounts for 50 percent to 70 percent of that price. Fighting and protests in the Middle East, coupled with increased demand for oil, have catapulted oil prices over $100 per barrel. Gasoline prices also take into account refinery crisis, competitor prices and sometimes weather patterns.

Throw in the fact that soon gasoline stations will be switching to summer blend, which is more expensive to produce, and pump prices could stay high for a while to come. "We have to pay whatever the market says we do. It??s an instantaneous world," said Joe Petrowski, CEO of wholesaler Gulf Oil.

With profits a mere two or three cents per gallon, retailers try hard not to drive away customers with pump prices. What Ricker and others want to do is bring gasoline customers into their stores to sell them the more profitable coffee and snacks.

"Gasoline is the only product in this country that if you??re a penny different people will go out of their way to go somewhere else," said Ricker.