Gasoline pump prices break $2 a gallon in Chicago

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WIRE:06/07/2000 11:40:00 ET Gasoline pump prices break $2 a gallon in Chicago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drivers in Chicago were the first in the nation to pay a daunting two bucks a gallon for retail gasoline as supply shortages in the city worsened under the weight of seasonal demand, the American Automobile Association (AAA) said Wednesday. Regular gasoline in Chicago averaged just under $2.01 a gallon, a nickel higher than Monday, and 45 cents above the already record-high national average of $1.56 a gallon, according to AAA.

The soaring prices, were attributed to particularly low spare supplies of gasoline in the area just as millions of American drivers took advantage of brightening spring weather for vacations and road trips.

"This is always a season of high driver demand for gasoline, but things are worse this year due to the very low inventories," said Steve Nolan of the AAA Chicago division. "This city has been hit particularly hard."

Low supplies of gasoline in Chicago are blamed on pipeline closures which cinched the flow of gasoline from the U.S. Gulf Coast this spring, and new environmental standards for summer gasoline which refiners find more difficult to make.

Nationwide, high gasoline prices are attributed to a 14-month long hike in oil prices, which are now bustling along at around $30 a barrel, or three times higher than they were during the winter of 1999.

Illinois gasoline prices averaged $1.84 a gallon on Wednesday, the highest among continental U.S. states and second only to Hawaii, where prices averaged $1.86 a gallon, according to AAA.

California gasoline prices, normally the highest in the nation due to strict green regulations on fuel, averaged $1.67 on Wednesday, the association said.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000607_1913.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 08, 2000


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