JUMP IN GAS COST MAY NOT LAST LONG.

Byline: - Brent Hopkins

Fuel prices hit record highs in Los Angeles on Thursday but experts offered hopeful predictions they would soon fall back.

The cost of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $2.216 on Thursday, topping the record of $2.200 set on March 4, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Truckers paid a record $2.238 for a gallon of diesel, which has leaped 16.2 cents in the past month.

The gasoline price spike in recent days comes after several weeks of gradual decline.

``We're dealing with what happened on a wholesale level, and we should feel some relief in about a week,'' said Paul Gonzales, an Auto Club spokesman. ``They'll go back to a slow decline from there.''

The wholesale price for gasoline soared about 40 cents - to a high of $1.68 a gallon - in the past week, he noted, then fell 31 cents - to $1.37 - on Thursday. An extremely tight supply-demand relationship has racked California for much of the year, making prices jump on as little as a rumor of supply interruption.

For now, production seems to be running smoothly, but experts predict that the summer driving season will be tough for motorists.

``I think (gasoline prices) will start easing down by 3 cents a week,'' said Bob van der Valk, bulk fuels and marketing manager for Cosby Oil in Santa Fe Springs. ``We should be down to two bucks a gallon by May, but then we've got Memorial Day and people will start driving more.''

With a price of $2.15 for a gallon of regular posted above his Mission Hills Arco, Naren Jhala is suffering in more ways than one. Not only are the high gas prices, on which he makes only 4 cents a gallon, cutting into his convenience-store sales, he's been forced to start sharing a ride on his 30-mile daily commute.

``I'm carpooling with a friend of mine now,'' he sighed. ``Arco's not giving me this gas for free.''