It costs you 31 percent more to fill up than last year. Expect prices above $2 soon.
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published October 15, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas reached $1.946 in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday night, a 31 percent increase over the past year. It could rise above $2 within a week.
Jim Smith, president of the Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, predicted gas-station owners will boost prices roughly 4 to 7 cents per gallon over the next several days to cover an equivalent spike in their wholesale costs.
"It's a given, I'm sorry to say," Smith said.
AAA Auto Club South spokesman Gregg Laskoski offered a similarly sour forecast. "Unfortunately, just about every factor we can identify suggests that prices will probably increase at least slightly in the near term," he said.
Wednesday night's average price was the bay area's highest since mid June. The local record of $1.99 per gallon, set May 28, could soon fall.
Retail gas prices are up 7 percent over the past month (from $1.815) and 31 percent over the past year (from $1.481).
For many consumers, rising pump prices are the most tangible evidence of the turmoil that has plagued global petroleum markets in recent months and driven the price of crude oil futures to record highs. Crude oil is the raw product from which gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil and other petroleum products are made.
Mike Aldred, a sales representative for the J.H. Williams Oil Co. of Tampa, said retailers' margins are so thin they have no choice but to boost pump prices when wholesale prices rise.
Consider the Disston Plaza Dash In Dash Out on 49th St. N, one of 35 properties owned and leased by J.H. Williams, where a gallon of regular unleaded BP brand gas cost consumers $1.979 per gallon Thursday. Aldred said J.H. Williams bought the gas for $1.931 per gallon at the Port of Tampa, including taxes and freight.
After paying the station's operator a commission of 3 cents per gallon, Aldred's employer was left with a profit of 1.8 cents per gallon.
"It seems like it's gone up every night this month," he said of the so-called rack rate charged at the Port.
J.H. Williams does a little better on premium gas sales, Aldred acknowledged. "I'll be completely honest with you. My cost on "Plus' is $1.958, I'm (retailing it) at $2.079, so I make 12 cents there, minus 4 cents' commission. It's strictly volume."
Two-dollar-a-gallon gasoline was a reality Wednesday night for eight of 12 Florida metropolitan areas surveyed by the OPIS Energy Group. Only the Jacksonville, Orlando, Pensacola and Tampa Bay areas had averages south of $2.
To determine bay area pricing, OPIS reviews the final credit-card swipe before midnight at each of 860 self-serve stations.
As fuel prices go, truckers have it even tougher these days. Average diesel prices in the bay area hit a record high of $2.147 per gallon Wednesday night, according to OPIS.
