KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Soaring gasoline prices recently prompted Leon Baca to raise the price of his company’s home improvement bids by as much as $100 a job.

So he wasn’t too pleased when he parked Thursday in front of a Texaco station in Kansas City, Kan., to refuel his truck and was greeted with prices of $1.96 a gallon for unleaded gasoline.

“This is ridiculous,” said Baca, the owner of All-Ways Construction. “I’ve had to raise the rates on my work, everything.”

Fuel prices across the state and the nation continued to reach all-time highs Thursday as demand remained strong and supply reduced. To firm up prices, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has kept supplies tight, most recently by approving a 4 percent cut in its output target starting last month.

At the same time, refineries are beginning to switch over from their winter blends to making an array of cleaner burning summer blends.

“Put that on top of OPEC reducing the flow of crude into the United States and peak demand, that’s why we are seeing peak prices as we speak,” said Tom Palace, executive director of the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association of Kansas.

In Kansas, prices jumped by 10 cents or more Thursday in Kansas City and Wichita.

The average price in the Kansas City region, which includes the Kansas-side suburbs, was $1.92 a gallon late Thursday morning, said Michael Right, vice president of public affairs for AAA Missouri’s office in St. Louis.

The average price in Lawrence was $1.82 per gallon on Thursday, according to the AAA survey, but by late Thursday afternoon several stations had raised prices to $1.95 per gallon.

Prices elsewhere in the state, including in Hays, Salina and Topeka, were between $1.84 and $1.86 a gallon.

Still, Kansas prices looked almost cheap compared to the rates motorists were paying elsewhere. As of Thursday, the AAA reported motorists in California were paying the most for unleaded, at $2.19 a gallon, followed by Nevada at $2.14 per gallon, Oregon at $2.11 per gallon and Washington state at $2.09 per gallon.