Local Gasoline Prices Reach Highest Level in Nine Years

If you've topped off your tank lately, you might have emptied your wallet. Gasoline is at its highest price in nine years, fueled in part by the increasing cost of crude oil. The change is helping

Tuesday, February 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

If you've topped off your tank lately, you might have emptied your wallet. Gasoline is at its highest price in nine years, fueled in part by the increasing cost of crude oil. The change is helping and hurting in Oklahoma, where oil makes up so much of the economy.

The higher price of gasoline isn't lost on Rob Mieir, as he fills the nearly empty tank of his Chevy Impala. "You pay for convenience,â€ said Mieir. â€œYou pay for high grade gas and OPEC's going to charge you what they want to, because we're getting all our oil from them."

Gasoline is selling in Tulsa for $1.29 a gallon at most stations. That's lower than the national average of a $1.36. This is far below the highest prices in the nation which are found in Connecticut and Nevada, where gasoline sells for a $1.50 a gallon.

Gasoline prices are controlled in part by the cost of crude oil, which doubled in price last summer, peaking at the current $28 a barrel. Tulsa's Sunoco refinery processes 80 thousand barrels of oil a day. The price change has put a squeeze on their bottom line.
"If you went into a store and looked at the price of a quart of oil for your car, there's hardly any difference in price from a year ago,â€ said Sunocoâ€™s Jaymie Cox. â€œBut the price of crude has more than doubled."

Hoewver, the boost is good for Oklahoma's independent oil producers. Their confidence goes up with the prices, and they've restarted many of the states marginal wells. "We had two years of prices where it cost us more to produce the product than for what we could sell it,â€ said Independent Producers Associationâ€™s Dewey Bartlett, Jr. â€œThousands of people lost their jobs and many people had their salaries reduced because of it."

Oklahoma state government benefits from higher oil prices. Last year, oil production taxes dipped to $640,000 a month in January, but jumped to over $9 million for November. That's little consolation at the pump, where the dollars flow faster than the fuel. "Then again I say to myself, what can we do about it?," said Tulsan Michael Marcou as he filled his carâ€™s gas tank.

Even though prices are up, production is down in Oklahoma. The Independent Producers Association says it will take several months to restart all the rigs and begin drilling again.