Pump prices hop as oil gains $1 a barrel: gas, oil prices forecast to fluctuate slightly for a while.

Pump prices hop as oil gains $1 a barrel

Rising prices of both gasoline and crude oil last week reversed a long slide in Los Angeles County - good news for crude producers and thousands of Angelenos with stakes in local wells but bad news for motorists and truckers here.

Retail prices for gasoline were hiked by 2 cents to 4 cents a gallon. That was after refiners boosted their wholesale prices to pass on an across-the-board increase of a buck a barrel in the prices posted for crude oil produced here.

The crude price increase turned around a long decline that began Oct. 18. The price posted by L.A.-based Unocal Corp. for 24-degree-gravity crude from the Wilmington field, for example, had sunk 60 percent from $29.35 in October to $11.60 a barrel last month before the latest change lifted the price to $12.60.

Similarly, Unocal reported, its posted price for 29-gravity crude from the Long Beach/Signal Hill field had fallen 43 percent from $33.45 a barrel in October to $14.50 last month before the latest change raised the price to $15.50.

Other posting companies making similar price changes, reported Charles E. (Ed) Malmgreen: Chevron Corp., Enron Oil Trading & Transportation Co., Koch Oil Co., Mobil Corp. and Texaco Inc. Prices last week, though, were $5 to $7 a barrel below those of Jan. 1, added the assistant vice president of California Independent Petroleum Association.

L.A. crude price action apparently reflected what was going on around the globe, suggested Albert J. Anton Jr., perhaps the nation's premier oil analyst at Carl H. Pforzheimer & Co., a New York brokerage specializing in petroleum. Going on, he said, was the news the Soviet Union was going to cut its oil shipments to outside that economically and politically troubled nation.

That really was old news, for it had been reported previously, Anton said, meaning it was discounted twice by the market. He said that indicated crude prices will experience random fluctuations of probably no more than $2 in either direction over the near term.

Malmgreen forecast no significant move in local crude prices for perhaps a couple of weeks and then an increase of probably another buck a barrel.

West Coast crude stocks as of March 15, according to figures reported last week by American Petroleum Institute, actually increased to 75.70 million barrels from 74.25 million the prior week. Stocks were down, though, from 78.71 million barrels a year earlier, according to the API data.

Crude stocks for the entire nation totaled 335.15 million barrels, API reported, up from the 330.17 barrels of the preceding week but down from the 350.98 million of a year earlier.

West Coast gasoline output increased to 1.21 million barrels daily in the week ended March 15 from 1.14 million the prior week and 1.19 million a year earlier, according to API data. Nonetheless, West Coast gasoline stocks actually declined to 31.99 million barrels as of March 15 from 32.15 million barrels a week earlier and 32.23 million a year earlier, API revealed, indicating increased consumption.

Gasoline stocks on the West Coast have been dropping by 200,000 to 300,000 barrels a week for three weeks now, remarked Jim Wampner, manager of volume planning at L.A.-based Atlantic Richfield Co.

That trend, plus the crude price reversal, apparently encouraged Arco to hike its wholesale gasoline prices in the L.A. market by 3 cents a gallon on March 15, and Unocal quickly followed the next day. Both local majors reported boosting their wholesale gasoline prices here by another 2 cents a gallon on March 19.

While Arco and Unocal gasoline stations hiked their retail prices last week, they generally failed to pass on to motorists the full amount of the two wholesale price hikes. This is indicated in the following retail prices for unleaded, 87-octane gasoline last week at various L.A.-area stations:

* A Mid-Wilshire Arco station raised its price by 4 cents a gallon to 91.9 cents. Just the preceding week, the station cut its price twice, first to 89.9 cents, then to 87.9 cents, which was 14 cents below the $1.069 of six weeks ago.

* Arco stations in both Glendale and Mixville hiked their prices by 2 cents a gallon to 87.9 cents. However, nearby Unocal stations retained their prices of the preceding week - 89.9 cents a gallon.

* Even the price leader in L.A., the 44-pump Unocal station on North Vermont Avenue by the northbound Hollywood Freeway, raised its price by 2 cents to 85.9 cents a gallon. The station had cut its price to 83.9 cents the preceding week - 16 cents below the 99.9 cents of six weeks ago.

The latest trend augurs gasoline prices here, after falling for weeks, have "rounded the bend," Arco's Wampner declared.