US retail gasoline price falls to 6-week low: govt

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. retail gasoline prices declined
2.5 cents over the last week to $2.87 a gallon, the lowest
level in six weeks, the U.S. government said on Wednesday.

The pump price for regular unleaded gasoline is still 77
cents higher than a year ago, based on the Energy Information
Administration’s weekly survey of service stations.

The drop in the latest pump price would have been steeper,
but in a rare move the EIA revised up the prior week’s national
price by almost a penny after it received incorrect fuel cost
information from stations in Los Angeles.

“We got bad numbers reported to us,” an EIA spokesman said.
Agency officials realized there was a problem after it noticed
its L.A. fuel prices were very different from the pump prices
reported by the AAA auto and travel group.

Once the correct data was sent, the EIA also revised up the
previous week’s average price for gasoline in Los Angeles by
15.3 cents, and that pushed up the national price.

In this week’s survey, which was delayed to get the correct
information, the average pump price in Los Angeles fell 4.1
cents to $3.34 a gallon, the highest for any city.

The EIA’s weekly survey reflects prices at about 800
stations nationwide, including 128 on the West Coast. The
agency refused to say how many L.A. stations are surveyed.

The West Coast had the most expensive gasoline by region,
with the price down 4.4 cents to $3.21 a gallon.

The Gulf Coast states had the cheapest gasoline at $2.74 a
gallon, down 4.6 cents. Among major cities, Cleveland again had
the best pump price at $2.71, down 5.6 cents.

Separately, the average diesel fuel price paid by truckers
fell a slight 0.6 cent over the last week to $2.88 a gallon, up
72 cents from a year earlier, the EIA said.

Truckers on the West Coast paid the most for diesel at
$3.16 a gallon, down 1.4 cents. The Gulf Coast region had the
cheapest diesel at $2.80 a gallon, down 0.3 cent.

Meanwhile, U.S. oil companies have taken steps to try to
limit any gasoline supply disruptions that may be caused by
hurricanes this summer.

Retail pump prices soared far inland last year after
hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut many Gulf Coast refineries
that made gasoline and also knocked out power to pipelines that
moved the fuel to cities in the South and up the East Coast.

Government and industry officials warned that consumers
should not fill up their cars and trucks with gasoline right
before the next storm hits in order to avoid the high fuel
prices that would likely follow, because the distribution
system could not handle the spike in gasoline demand.

If necessary, strong gasoline imports will help make up the
loss from storm-related fuel supply disruptions, according to
the head of the American Petroleum Institute.

“We are bringing in (motor fuel) at record levels right now
and we have received no indication that record levels of
gasoline wouldn’t continue to flow into this market,” API
President Red Cavaney said Tuesday at a briefing on how the
U.S. oil industry is better prepared to deal with hurricanes.