In its price survey Tuesday, the auto club found the average price of regular unleaded gas in Stockton was $3.05 a gallon, up 22 cents from its previous survey on Sept. 11. Petroleum analysts blame high-priced crude oil for the unseasonable rise in gasoline prices, with summer travel and harvest demand long past. The most expensive average gas price in the California communities where AAA monitors fuel costs is in Tahoe City, where regular unleaded sells for $3.29 per gallon. The lowest price among Northern California cities tracked by AAA is in Chico, where gas costs an average of $2.97 per gallon. Also on Tuesday, the price for a barrel of crude oil rose 3 percent -- a record jump to $87.61 -- sparking predictions that motorists would see sharply higher gasoline prices by Thanksgiving — and fears that $100-a-barrel oil is no longer such a distant prospect. According to the New York Times, oil traders, discussing the latest rise, cited a potential conflict on the border between Turkey and Iraq that could heighten Middle East tensions and possibly affect oil supplies from the region.  The New York Times contributed to this story.