Another month, and another record in the price of local gas.

Chicago area gas reached historic high prices for February with the price of unleaded gasoline averaging $4.01 a gallon, 36 cents higher than last year according to ChicagoGasPrices.com.

“We are seeing record prices,” said GasBuddy.com‘s Gregg Laskoski who says 2012 began the year in record territory. “Each day we’ve seen higher prices that we’ve ever seen before.”

Similarly, AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report had the pegged the average cost of area gas at $3.57 per gallon for the month of February, which is $.27 higher per gallon than last year.

“February’s gas prices were extremely volatile, with a period of decreasing prices and days when the Chicago region’s averages were lower than the national average, which has never happened before,” said AAA’s Beth Mosher. “We also saw periods of high day-over-day price jumps at the end of the month, which escalated prices very quickly.”

Laskoski does not see an short term end to the rapidly increasing pump prices due to tensions in the Middle East which is putting upward pressure on the price of crude oil which has been flirting with $110 a barrel.

“We’re waiting to see what happens in the Middle East,” Laskoski explains about the potential for an attack by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “If that happens crude oil could go to $200 a barrel or higher and that would be a disaster for the U.S. economy