US gas prices hit 21-month high, average $1.68 in N.E.

www.boston.com By Bloomberg News, 3/11/2003

WASHINGTON - US retail gasoline rose for the 12th week in 13, reaching $1.712 a gallon for a 21-month high, the US Energy Department said in a weekly report. The price was 0.1 cent below the record reached in May 2001.

The average nationwide price for regular grade gasoline in the week ended yesterday was up 2.6 cents from the previous week and up 48.9 cents, or 40 percent, from $1.223 a year earlier, government data showed. The average is based on a survey of about 900 filling stations.

Pump prices have risen as a nationwide strike in Venezuela hobbled the petroleum industry in the fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States.

Refiners were forced to pay more for alternative supplies and passed along the higher costs to consumers. US crude supplies are near 27-year lows, and crude prices last week reached a 12-year high.

The latest average price was the highest since a record $1.713 in the week ended May 14, 2001, according to the Energy Department. Prices rose that year partly because of shortfalls of cleaner-burning fuels required in large US cities during warmer months.

Gasoline was most expensive on the West Coast, where prices rose the most of any US region in the latest week. West Coast regular gasoline averaged $1.993 a gallon, up 6.1 cents from the previous week, the Energy Department said. Prices in Los Angeles and San Francisco have already surpassed $2 a gallon.

In the Midwest, gasoline averaged $1.69 a gallon, up 2.6 cents from the previous week and up 46 cents from a year earlier. Gasoline in New England was $1.68, up 0.5 cent from the previous week and up 47.5 cents from a year ago. The price in the Rocky Mountain region averaged $1.667, up 2.1 cents from a week ago and up 49.8 cents from a year ago.

This story ran on page F5 of the Boston Globe on 3/11/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.