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CA And Chicago Told To
Expect Gasoline At $3 A Gallon
By Dina Temple-Raston
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/hlead.htm
5-7-1

Shell and Chevron dealers in California and Chicago say they have been told by regional company representatives to get ready for the possibility of $3-a-gallon gasoline this summer.
 
Bob Oyster, who owns 26 Shell and Chevron service stations in northern California, says representatives from both companies told him to "be prepared for $3 gasoline the early part of the summer."
 
More than 20 service-station owners in California and the Chicago area contacted by USA TODAY say they also have been told to expect prices in the $3 range. The oil company representatives were not specific about which grade of gasoline would be $3, they say.
 
Shell spokespeople say they do not discuss prices. Chevron spokesman Fred Gorell says the company never provides advance notice on pricing to retailers. "Whatever the marketplace does, we will follow. But we don't know where that marketplace is going to go ahead of time," Gorell says.
 
California's average price for regular unleaded hit a new high of $1.95 per gallon this weekend, according to AAA. The average for premium was $2.11.
 
Dennis Decota, executive director of the California Service Station and Auto Repair Association, says the state is short on reserves of reformulated gas, a cleaner-burning fuel required in certain urban areas during the summer. "If there were any glitch in production, prices will go through the roof," he says.
 
In Chicago, where prices have been rising amid refinery problems, the average price for regular unleaded was $1.97 a gallon and $2.19 for premium.
 
Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit a 17-year high last week when a fire crimped capacity at a Tosco refinery in Los Angeles, and a fire at a Tosco refinery in Wood River, Ill., also drove up prices.
 
Some analysts see the case building for a Bush administration rescue. The Environmental Protection Agency has the ability to issue waivers that would allow the use of regular gas instead of the reformulated blend. That could help bring down prices.
 
An EPA spokesperson says the agency has not received waiver requests from refiners.


 
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