AVERAGE GAS PRICE HITS $2.

Byline: Martin Kuz Staff Writer

Average gas prices hit $2 across the region, the Automobile Club of Southern California reported Tuesday, breaking through a psychological barrier dreaded by consumers.

The average cost of regular unleaded fuel soared to $2 a gallon, up 22 cents from the $1.78 average price last month, according to the Auto Club survey. May marks the fourth straight month of gas cost increases in Southern California, with prices jumping 40 cents since mid-February.

``Oh, the prices are great,'' attorney Alan Sedley said sarcastically as he pumped $27.05 worth of unleaded fuel into his BMW sedan at a Woodland Hills Chevron station Tuesday. ``No, it's not great, it's deplorable. And the really sad thing is, the consumer has no choice or say in the matter.''

The Auto Club also reported that average gas prices nationwide have spiked to an all-time high of $1.72 a gallon. The latest price hike resembles what occurred last year at about the same time, when gas prices in parts of Northern California and the Midwest topped $2 a gallon.

Analysts attribute the latest price surge in California and nationally to the usual factors, among them reduced gas inventories and a tight crude oil market. A recent fire at the Tosco refinery in Los Angeles also hurt the state.

In addition, a requirement that smog-filled cities, including Los Angeles, use reformulated - or cleaner-burning - gasoline has driven up prices. The cost of natural gas, an ingredient in reformulated gasoline, has exploded, leading to higher production costs for refineries that are passed on to consumers, AAA spokesman Jeffrey Spring said.

But those explanations offered little solace Tuesday to consumers in the Southland, where road rage is giving way to pump fatigue.

Robert Gillespie, a Century City life insurance agent whose job requires him to crisscross the San Fernando Valley every week, called the $2 average price ``horrible.''

``I'm really not happy about it, and there's never really a good explanation as to why it's happening,'' he said. ``It just seems to keep going up.''

That should change in the next couple of weeks, analysts say, although prices could rise another nickel before then.

``There is a silver lining in all of this in that we have reached the peak,'' Spring said.

Bob Van der Valk, manager of fuel supply for Cosby Oil, a Santa Fe Springs-based petroleum supplier, said wholesale gas prices have ``zoomed down'' the past two weeks. Consumers should benefit from that decrease by month's end, he predicted.

``It's peaked and it's going to start coming down - people just need to hold on,'' he said.

This year's gas-price hike mirrors a recent springtime trend of costs rising between March 1 and May 31, Chevron Corp. spokesman Fred Gorell said. Much of that increase has to do with refineries switching over from winter-grade fuel to a lighter summer grade, which causes fuel production to lag each spring.

Gorell said gas prices jumped 44 cents from March 1 to May 31, 1999, and rose 45 cents during the same period last year. This year's increase will be about the same, he said.

The good news is that gas prices tend to cycle downward later in the year, Gorell added.

``The important thing is not the snapshot of prices at one time, but looking at the whole moving picture throughout the year,'' he said.

AAA reported that the city of Blythe recorded the highest average price for regular unleaded fuel in California and the nation at $2.17 a gallon. San Francisco averaged $2.13 a gallon, an increase of 11 cents over last month.