Seattle gasoline prices down a bit

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Local gasoline prices down a bit, survey says

Tuesday, April 25, 2000

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

Tracking Seattle gasoline prices this spring is a little like watching a yo-yo on a short string -- one week it is up a little; the next week it is down.

According to the Lundberg Survey, taken Friday, the price of unleaded, self-serve gas in Seattle had dropped 1.7 cents in the last two weeks, now averaging $1.67 at pumps surveyed throughout the Seattle metro area.

Throughout the rest of the country, prices for unleaded, self-serve gasoline dropped an average of 4 cents during the same two-week period. The average price for unleaded gas nationally was $1.48.

The San Francisco metropolitan-area gas dropped 4 cents a gallon, but remained the most expensive gas in the country, averaging $1.84 per gallon. Tulsa, Okla., had the cheapest gas, averaging $1.21 per gallon, according to the report.

Gas prices climbed about a penny in a few cities surveyed, including Chicago, Honolulu and Louisville, Ky.

Analyst Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the Lundberg Survey, said tax differences and fuel formulations that vary from state to state are responsible in part for the price differences. Price variations between stations in the same city often caused by different ways individual businesses are run, hours of operation and other variables, Lundberg said.

In Washington, taxes account for about 42 cents of the price for a gallon of gasoline. Competition, supply and demand, and seasonal variations affect gas prices locally. But Lundberg said the price of crude oil remains the key factor in gas prices.

The Lundberg Survey checks 120 gas stations in the Seattle area, sending surveyors to the stations to read the numbers off the pumps about twice a month.

http://www.seattle-pi.com/business/gas25.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 25, 2000


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