The price of gasoline continues to climb in North Dakota, and officials are advising people to get used to it.

"Due to continuing supply concerns, gasoline prices are expected to see upward pressure through Memorial Day and perhaps longer," a statement from AAA North Dakota said Thursday.

The pump price for a gallon of unleaded climbed 10 cents, to $3.34, in Bismarck on Thursday. It was $3.30 in Grand Forks a day earlier.

Tami Hemmesch, general manager of University Station, in Grand Forks, said she would not be surprised to see pump prices in the area top $3.50 a gallon within the next two weeks. She said she has seen the price she pays per gallon of gasoline jump as high as 12 cents overnight, and she was expecting a 16-cent-per-gallon increase in the wholesale price Wednesday night.

"We're just at that time in the season where we're starting to see demand exceed supply," said Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association. In Fargo, he said, the E-10 ethanol blend was selling for about $3.10 per gallon, just a couple of cents more than it cost to get it in the tank.

"It's been fluctuating quite a bit in the wholesale market," Rud said.

Nationwide, the Energy Department said gasoline prices this week reached a record average of $3.10 a gallon, about 3 cents higher than after Hurricane Katrina devastated Gulf of Mexico oil supplies and shut down the Gulf's refineries. North Dakota's average was $3.23.

AAA North Dakota spokesman Gene LaDoucer said pump prices are setting records around the country. Industry officials point to refinery outages and tight supplies.

"Just about all of the gains we've seen in the past two months or so can be directly attributed to the problems we're seeing at the refinery level," LaDoucer said.

Still, he said, travel is expected to be up slightly over the Memorial Day holiday.

"Families will travel closer to home, they will travel for fewer days and will save money by staying in less expensive hotels and eating in cheaper restaurants, but they will continue to take vacations and plan getaways," he said.