Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991 TAG: 9102200035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The average retail price of a gallon of self-serve unleaded regular on Tuesday was $1.135, according to a weekly survey by the American Automobile Association.
That's 6 cents a gallon higher than on Aug. 1, the day before Iraq invaded Kuwait, when gas cost $1.075. But since the invasion, higher federal and state taxes have added about 5.6 cents, maybe more, to the price.
In Roanoke, gasoline prices continue to fall to near $1 a gallon, several stations reported Tuesday. There is more gas than demand and the war is not disrupting the supply, said Ron Lundy, a vice president of Fuel Oil & Equipment Co.
However, if ground war breaks out in the Persian Gulf, the gasoline market "will have a new set of marbles . . . It's scary," Lundy said.
His company's Citgo dealers are selling regular gas at $1.049 a gallon. Tanglewood Texaco's price is down to $1.06; Crossroads Shell is selling regular at $1.089; Jet's Peters Creek Road station is at 99 cents and Garden City Shell is at $1.10.
Some stations reported cutting prices by 4 to 8 cents a gallon last week.
"We're pretty much where we were prior to the invasion," said Mike Doyle of Computer Petroleum Corp. in St. Paul, Minn., which tallies fuel prices for AAA and others. "I guess in the coming week or two, you're still going to see some downward pressure on retail prices. Not a lot, but a little bit."
Minus taxes, Doyle said, the gasoline pump price is 3.8 cents cheaper than it was two weeks before the invasion. Thus the "war premium" that sent oil prices soaring has vanished.
On Dec. 1, the federal government imposed an additional 5.1-cent levy on each gallon of gas as part of a package of higher taxes intended to reduce the budget deficit. Some state taxes also have taken effect recently.
On Tuesday, oil prices fell on a combination of technical trading factors and a belief that a diplomatic settlement to the Persian Gulf War may yet emerge.
"Traders are beginning to anticipate the end of the war," said Thomas P. Blakeslee, an energy analyst with Pegasus Econometric Group Inc. in Hoboken, N.J.
Light sweet crude oil for delivery in March fell 81 cents to close at $20.07 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices lost about one-third of their value immediately after the war with Iraq began Jan. 16.
by CNB