Will gas prices reach $5 a gallon in suburbs?

It's painful to pump gas these days with prices in the region averaging around $4 for a gallon of regular.

But whether that pain will dull in comparison once the summer travel season starts is up for debate.

“We're not going below $3 a gallon any time this year,” AAA Chicago spokeswoman Beth Mosher said Thursday. Instability in the Middle East will continue to make gas costs volatile, experts said.

Could drivers end up paying $5 a gallon for regular?

“It's speculation, but I don't think they will,” Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association Executive Vice President Bill Fleischli said. “I don't think it will go up to $5, but there's not any relief in sight.

“The worst thing is that as wholesale prices go up, the sales tax goes up because it's a percentage.”

But Don Hillebrand, director of Argonne National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Research, noted he recently paid $4.40 a gallon for gas in Plainfield and $5 really isn't that far away.

“We're going to see $5 this summer. I hope that's as bad as it gets.”

With oil prices at $120 a barrel, “that means there's no sense to the market — speculation has kicked in,” Hillebrand said.

Asked if staycations will return, Mosher predicted people will hit the road this summer but will penny-pinch.

“They're still going to go,” she said. “What we'll see is people skipping the souvenirs or staying at a less expensive hotel, or eating out less often. They'll stay with family instead of a hotel.”

Costs for a gallon of regular were $4.03 on average Thursday compared to $3.08 a year ago, AAA reported.

Every day, Shell e-mails service stations with the latest fuel prices, said Kyle Murphy, manager at Grandt's Shell in Arlington Heights. “Historically, right around Memorial Day they raise the price.”

Now with average sales between $60 and $75, “we have to watch our pumps a lot closer,” Murphy said. “If someone gets away with one tank of gas, that's our (fuel) profit for the entire day.”