Dallas oil tycoon Boone Pickens is predicting that you’ll be paying more than $3 a gallon for gasoline within the next few months.

The 75-year-old oilman has been almost alone in his assertion that oil prices are likely to stay well over $30 a barrel. And he told the Houston Chronicle that he foresees $50-a-barrel crude before the price drops to $30 again.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil closed down $40.53 a barrel.

Pickens says $3 gasoline might curb demand and ease
the current squeeze in refining. He says refining capacity drives
the gasoline price, not oil production.

He says the Memorial Day weekend will give some clues to what
price will get people to stop driving.

Pickens is well known for his hostile takeover bids for Gulf
Oil, Phillips Petroleum and Unocal in the 1980s.

Texas gasoline prices climbed almost nine cents last week to a record average of nearly a $1.82 a gallon for regular unleaded, according to the weekly survey conducted by AAA Texas.

But the Texas average is almost 14 cents per gallon less than
the national average of $1.95.

A year ago, Texas prices averaged a fraction over $1.38 a gallon.