US retail gasoline price down after 3 record weeks

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After hitting a record high for
three weeks in a row, the U.S. average retail gasoline price
fell a slight 0.2 cent a gallon over the last week to $2.61,
the government said on Monday.

However, pump costs could go higher as a disruption in
petroleum supplies caused by Hurricane Katrina pushed up spot
prices for motor fuel on Monday by 50 cents a gallon, some of
which will likely be passed on to consumers.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline is up 74
cents from a year ago, according to a survey of service
stations conducted by the U.S. Energy Information
Administration.

When adjusted for inflation, the highest price for gasoline
would be around $3.12 a gallon in March 1981.

Fears of supply problems due to Katrina skyrocketed crude
oil prices pass $70 a barrel at the New York Mercantile
Exchange. The price for crude accounts for about half the cost
of making gasoline.

The latest weekly pump price came on the same day that four
U.S. lawmakers made separate requests for President George W.
Bush to release oil from the nation’s 700 million-barrel
emergency petroleum reserve to help replenish supplies
disrupted by the hurricane and lower fuel prices.

As much as 1 million barrels per day of oil production in
the Gulf of Mexico could be lost for two weeks due to Katrina.

“Releasing an equivalent amount of oil from the reserve for
a short period of time will help keep fuel supplies adequate,
not just for the Gulf Coast area, but for all the United
States,” said Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, chairman of
the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“If there was ever a time for the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve to be tapped, it would be now,” said Democratic Sen.
Charles Schumer of New York.

The White House said it would consider requests from any
oil refineries that wanted to borrow crude from the reserve.

In the weekly EIA survey, the West Coast had the most
expensive regular unleaded gasoline, with the price up 3 cents
at $2.74 a gallon. San Francisco topped the agency’s survey of
cities, with the price of gasoline up 2.2 cents at $2.81.

The Gulf Coast states had the cheapest fuel, with the price
down 2.5 cents at $2.53 per gallon. Among major cities, Houston
had the cheapest price, with fuel down 3.3 cents at $2.53.

The EIA report also showed prices, rounded to the nearest
penny, down 0.6 cent at $2.78 in Chicago, up 3.8 cents at $2.72
in Seattle, up 0.4 cent at $2.71 in Miami, up 3.1 cents at
$2.62 in Cleveland, down 0.6 cent at $2.61 in New York City and
unchanged at $2.61 in Boston.

Separately, the average price for diesel fuel increased 0.2
cent to a record $2.59 a gallon, up 72 cents from a year
earlier, the EIA said.

Truckers on the West Coast paid the most for diesel at
$2.92 a gallon, up 2.3 cents from last week. The Gulf Coast
states had the cheapest diesel at $2.51 a gallon, down 0.4
cent.