Hawaii gasoline prices rise again; Venezuela output rises

pacific.bizjournals.com 7:24 AM HST Wednesday  Howard Dicus   Pacific Business News

Hawaii gasoline prices are on the rise again after pausing for a day or two in some locales. World oil output, meanwhile, has improved.

The American Automobile Association's retail price survey for self-serve regular unleaded, in postings for Wednesday morning, showed an average $1.84 a gallon in Honolulu, while the Hilo average rose to almost $1.98 and the Wailuku average topped $2.12. Some more remote locales had still higher prices.

But there was good news late Tuesday on world oil supplies when the Venezuelan state oil company announced that ChevronTexaco was to load 270,000 barrels of crude on a tanker at the western port of Bajo Grande this week. Until now only eastern port international loadings had been reported since the general strike began in Venezuela in December.

Venezuela, an OPEC member, supplies a large amount of the foreign oil used in the United States, and ChevronTexaco owns one of the two refineries on Oahu. Tesoro Corp. owns the other.