Survey: U.S. gasoline prices rising at record pace

March 12, 2000
Web posted at: 6:32 p.m. EST (2332 GMT)

In this story: Highest prices in San Francisco Home heating oil prices stabilize RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The rising cost of gasoline seems to be going from bad to worse, as a new survey suggests U.S. prices took their steepest rise ever during the past two weeks.

The Lundberg Survey, which monitors gas prices at more than 10,000 stations across the United States, showed the average national price of a gallon of self-serve regular gas from February 25 to March 10 was $1.54, up 12.11 cents per gallon from two weeks ago.

"That speed of change is a record breaker," Trilby Lundberg, who heads the survey, told CNN.

Highest prices in San Francisco

MESSAGE BOARD Rising oil prices     ALSO Energy Secretary Richardson: Gas prices will stabilize soon    Resources: Average prices for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in selected U.S. cities -- and the change from February 25 to March 10 -- according to the Lundberg Survey: San Francisco: $1.83, up 21.3 cents Hartford, Connecticut: $1.65, up 12.4 cents Chicago: $1.64, up 6 cents Los Angeles: $1.60, up 19.6 cents Miami: $1.56, up 10.6 cents Boston: $1.55, up 12 cents Indianapolis: $1.53, up 5.8 cents Philadelphia: $1.51, up 14.3 cents Salt Lake City: $1.49, up 10.4 cents Sacramento, California: $1.48, up 24.2 cents St. Louis: $1.41, up 4.9 cents Atlanta: $1.39, up 11.7 cents Cheyenne, Wyoming: $1.39, up 9.7 cents

The highest prices, according to the survey, were in San Francisco, where a gallon of self- serve regular averaged $1.83 cents per gallon, 21.32 cents higher than two weeks ago.

San Francisco's prices include local taxes of more than 51 cents per gallon.

The largest price jump in the survey was in Sacramento, California, where the average cost of a gallon of self-serve regular leaped by more than 24 cents in two weeks to settle at $1.48.

The cheapest average price was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where motorists paid $1.39 for a gallon of self-serve regular, up 9.79 cents from the average price two weeks ago.

Though the price of gas has hit a new high in absolute terms, when adjusted for inflation it is $1.07 less than the all-time high reached in June 1980, when a gallon of gas cost $2.66 in today's dollars.

Lundberg blamed the increase largely on what she called "the OPEC situation," referring to oil production cutbacks by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Whether the trend continues will be decided at the cartel's March 27 meeting, Lundberg said. "Everything depends on OPEC."

Home heating oil prices stabilize

With spring approaching, the survey found U.S. home heating oil prices appearing to stabilize. The national average price for home heating oil during the past two weeks was down about 21 cents per gallon compared to prices two weeks earlier.

"The price crisis related to home heating oil is coming to an end," Lundberg said.

The same goes for the price of diesel gasoline, which is made from the same "number two" fuel used to produce home heating oil. According to the survey, the national average price of a gallon of diesel rose only about three cents, from $1.58 to $1.61, in the same two week period.

Moreover, there are signs that the retail cost of home heating oil and diesel may soon fall: Futures contracts for number two fuel dropped from 93.5 cents per gallon two weeks ago to 74.5 cents in the latest survey, Lundberg said.

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Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - OPEC
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OilOnline.com
Lundberg Survey

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