Copyright 1999 The Seattle Times Company
The
Seattle Times
April 08, 1999, Thursday Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 682 words
HEADLINE:
GAS PRICES TO KEEP RISING
BYLINE: TAMRA FITZPATRICK; SEATTLE TIMES BUSINESS
REPORTER
BODY:
If you're planning any road trips
soon, you may want to wait until, oh, say . . . June.
That's when
gasoline prices should start declining.
In the meantime, consumers can
expect prices to rise, on a national average, by 6 cents a gallon in May to $
1.18 - the year's peak price, the U.S. Department of Energy said today. That's
10 cents higher than predicted in January. Things are even worse on the West
Coast, where prices have soared from an average of $ 1.07 a gallon in
mid-February to $ 1.48 this week.
The average summer price for gasoline
in the U.S. will be about $ 1.13 a gallon, a penny more than the average earlier
this week, but about 10 cents more than last year's average.
Demand for
gasoline is expected to be up 2 percent this summer and highway travel up 2.1
percent. The demand for gasoline this summer is expected to be a record.
Price increases will be nothing new for Washington residents.
Gas prices throughout the state have increased an average of more than
18 cents a gallon since mid-February, according to the American Automobile
Association of Washington. And while prices are usually higher during the spring
and summer when more people are traveling, the increases are usually not quite
this dramatic, notes AAA spokeswoman Janet Ray.
Nationally, gasoline
prices jumped from an all-time low, adjusted for inflation, of 91 cents a gallon
for regular unleaded in mid-February to $ 1.12 a gallon this week. Locally, some
stations have been charging as much as $ 1.50 a gallon.
The soaring
prices are partly attributed to a recent announcement that 14 major
oil-producing countries, including 10 from the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), plan to cut production by 3 percent.
But
much of the West Coast's jump is being attributed to a 15 percent production
decline at California refineries due to a fire at Tosco's Avon refinery on Feb.
23 and one at Chevron's Richmond refinery March 25. In addition, other
California refineries had scheduled maintenance and suffered distribution
problems.
The California refineries are expected to be completely back
online in June, spurring a decline in gas prices, said Neil Gamson, an economist
for the Department of Energy. California refineries, he noted, produce 10
percent of the country's gasoline.
Nationally, gas prices for regular
unleaded are expected to dip to $ 1.11, on average, by the end of the summer and
to $ 1.09 by the end of the year.
Prices have risen faster recently than
Jerry Blanton, owner of Tukwila Texaco, says he's seen in his 32 years in the
business.
Blanton said that one day last month he increased his price
for regular unleaded by 8 cents a gallon after his supplier raised prices.
Another day, he raised his pump price by 7 cents. Overall, his prices have
increased from $ 1.08 in February to $ 1.50 yesterday.
The manager of
one local BP station said he increased prices eight times in March, including a
13-cent increase from March 29 to March 31. He was charging $ 1.46 a gallon for
unleaded yesterday, up 36 cents from the beginning of March.
But things
are looking up, says California Energy Commission spokesman Rob Schlichting.
Twelve of California's 13 refineries are back online - Tosco is the only
one still having problems - and production is increasing. Still, Jim Windle,
owner of Windle's BP Service on Mercer Island, says he doesn't think lower
prices will show up at the pump until September because of the summer demand.
Even Costco has increased prices at its Seattle-area stations - 36 cents
a gallon since February. But at $ 1.22 a gallon, it's still some of the cheapest
gas in town. Lately, there have been as many as 20 cars lined up at Costco
stations, says Dave Loge, Costco's executive vice president.
Costco,
which started selling gasoline in 1995, buys directly from refineries and large
distributors.
"We apply the same values whether it's salmon, televisions
or gasoline - low mark-ups and high volume," Loge said.
Information from Newhouse News Service is included in this report.
GRAPHIC: CHART; THE SEATTLE TIMES: GAS PRICES (CHART
NOT AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY)
LOAD-DATE: April 9, 1999
