Copyright 1999 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
March 16, 1999, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: MONEY; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 366 words
HEADLINE:
Gas prices get pumped up
BYLINE: Sara
Nathan
BODY:
Pump prices for regular gasoline
surged 5 cents a gallon last
week to 97.7 cents -- and are headed higher,
the Department of
Energy said Monday.
Gas
prices will likely increase another 2 to 3 cents a gallon
by the
end of the month, says Jim Cook of the Department of Energy's
Energy
Information Agency, which surveys 800 gas stations.
After a month of
rising crude oil prices, retail prices for gasoline
have
jumped from a low of 90.7 cents a gallon the week of Feb.
22. Last week's
prices, the highest since 98.9 cents the week
of Nov. 23, marked the third
consecutive increase.
"Prices are going to continue to trickle up," said Jim
Huccaby
of Chevron.
Prices are highest on the West Coast, where
a gallon of regular
gas averaged $ 1.14 last week, up from $ 1.07 the week
of Feb. 22.
They are lowest in the Gulf Coast states, where prices averaged
91.2 cents a gallon, up from 87.3 cents the week of Feb. 22.
For
Pete Smith, a cashier at a Chevron gas station in Portland,
Ore., the
increase means it costs $ 55 to fill up his 1968 Ford
truck, up from $ 40 a
month ago. The station where he works raised
prices 14 cents on Friday to
86.9 cents.
The increase was more dramatic at a Speedway station in
Toledo,
Ohio, where gas rose to $ 1.04 Friday from 86 cents. "Customers
keep asking why," says cashier Lucy O'Neal.
Gas prices have been
rising since oil prices spiked 25% the last
month as demand increased and
producers cut output. Boosting demand:
recovering economies in Asia and
harsher weather in the USA.
Meanwhile, members of the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting
Countries will vote next Tuesday on a plan to cut
production by
2 million barrels a day beginning April 1.
Sweet
crude for April delivery fell 4 cents Monday to $ 14.45 a
barrel.
Oil prices are not expected to return to historic highs any time
soon. Even if OPEC members vote for the plan, some analysts say
it's
unlikely they will fully comply with it.
But oil producers will
likely cut production by 1.3 million barrels
a day, which could lead to
another 10-cent increase at the pump
by year's end, says Adam Sieminski, oil
analyst at BT Alex. Brown.
LOAD-DATE: March 16,
1999 
