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JANUARY 09, 20:08 EST

Gas Prices Lower With Y2K Over

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Gasoline pump prices fell more than a half-cent per gallon in the past three weeks as crude oil prices dipped and Y2K panic failed to materialize, according to an industry analyst.

Prices nationwide fell .68 cents to a weighted average of $1.3344 per gallon on Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey of 10,000 stations.

The price was about 30 cents per gallon higher than the average for the same period last year.

A continuing slump in crude oil prices was the most important factor in the decline from the Dec. 17 survey, analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday.

Oil prices finished down $1.20 a barrel to $24.22 last week as production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries increased. The decline continued a reversal in crude prices, which hit their highest mark since 1991 in November.

Soft seasonal demand caused by less cold-weather driving also helped depress gasoline prices, Lundberg said.

Some analysts believed gas prices might rise with the new year on the strength of hoarding by people nervous about Y2K, but that did not happen, Lundberg said.

Speculation that panic buying ``could have drained tanks dry and caused price spikes certainly proved untrue,'' she said. ``Instead, we saw normalcy.''

According to the survey, the average price per gallon for self-service gas on Friday was $1.2843 for regular grade, $1.3824 for mid-grade and $1.4666 for premium.

Full-service prices were $1.6254 for regular, $1.7118 for mid-grade and $1.7855 for premium.

-- Martin Thompson (Martin@aol.com), January 09, 2000

Answers

Tish and pish. The gas in the pumps is illusionary. It's all a UN conspiracy. ;p

Thanks for the post.

Happy smiles... :)

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 11, 2000.