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US retail gasoline price down after 3 record weeks

Posted on: Monday, 29 August 2005, 16:00 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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