Wholesale gas prices foretell of more bad news.

Buyers stand in line for hours for radio station deal

L.A. COUNTY - Wholesale gasoline and diesel prices - the leading indicators of impending prices at the pump - continued to rocket upward last week, fueling public outcry and concerns by businesses about higher operating costs.

Meanwhile, diesel wholesalers in the L.A. area waited on long lines at terminals and refineries, and consumers waited as long as six hours for 64-cent gasoline which was subsidized by a local radio station as a promotional effort.

As of April 24, the wholesale price of gasoline in California had risen 40 cents a gallon, or 65 percent since Jan. 1 and wholesale diesel prices had gone up 30 cents a gallon, or 44 percent, according to Charles R. Imbrecht, chairman of the California Energy Commission.

In a six-day period between April 18 and April 24, the wholesale price of diesel increased 4 cents a gallon and the wholesale price of gasoline increased 6 cents a gallon.

The average retail price for a gallon of gasoline in California on April 19 was $1.47, up from $1.147 in January, according to the California Energy Commission.

Pump prices in the L.A. area last week were in the range of $1.49 to $1.69 a gallon for regular unleaded, according to Layna Browdy, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. "I heard somebody saw $2.09 in the Apple Valley," she said.

Meanwhile, state officials held a hearing to quiz oil executives about the price hikes. The California Air Resources Board was scheduled to hold a hearing April 25 and the state Senate Transportation Committee and Senate Energy Utilities and Communications committees scheduled a joint hearing for April 30.

Public pleads pain

State senators "are hearing from their constituents that the price of gas is painful and the public and the (Senate) members are wondering what is going on at a time when the oil industry is having record profits," said Steve Schnaidt, consultant to the transportation committee.

The California Independent Oil Marketers Association was expected to ask CARB officials last week to suspend a regulation mandating that all California gas stations sell a cleaner-burning gasoline by June 1, said Evelyn Gibson, government relations director for the trade group representing gasoline wholesalers.

The state's 13 refineries have been making the gas, which CARB says costs 5 to 15 cents more a gallon to produce, since March. Bruce Lanni, oil analyst with New York investment firm Oppenheimer & Co., said companies have told him the gas costs 3 to 5 cents more to produce.

Gibson said the fact that only 13 refineries are making the gas may be contributing to the price hikes, aside from rising prices of crude oil internationally. She said she wants CARB to suspend the regulation "until the market gets back into balance."

Jeff Wilson, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, said that his group, which represents the major oil companies, is "absolutely opposed" to suspending the regulation mandating the sale of so-called CARB gas. CARB gas reduces air-polluting chemicals by about 15 percent, Wilson said.

That regulation accounts for 25 percent of the emission reductions California is required to meet under federal law, Wilson added.

Stations get 'short loads'

Gibson said she is concerned about gas shortages. She added that some of her group's members have been delivering "short loads" to their customers, which include farmers, big businesses and government agencies. In some cases, "a customer needs 3,500 gallons and we have only been able to deliver 1,000 gallons," she explained.

Imbrecht said also contributing to higher pump prices is that as many as four different refineries in California had experienced some sort of unscheduled shutdown in recent weeks.

As of April 19, the state's refineries were producing about 30,000 fewer barrels of gasoline a day than Californians were consuming, he said.

But that shortfall was an improvement over April 17, when refineries were churning out 100,000 barrels a day less than the state's 864,000 barrel a day gasoline habit.

"The thing we fear the most, and what people should avoid doing, is topping off their tanks," Imbrecht said.

Last week, some consumers waited in a line several miles long from midnight till 6 a.m. at an Arco station in Paramount, which was dispensing gasoline at 64 cents a gallon, a promotion of Mid Wilshire-based radio station KFI-AM.

Diesel lines grow

Marie Wilson, sales representative for Mike Roche & Co., a Cudahy-based gasoline wholesaler, said lines at gasoline terminals and refineries to buy diesel in bulk "have been one hour to seven hours long" in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the higher gas prices are "causing exquisite pain" for all types of businesses in L.A. County, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County.

Gas and diesel prices threaten to "crimp profits" at trucking companies, construction companies and "anybody who operates large fleets of trucks," Kyser said.

David Dickstein, spokesman for Pacific Bell, said the company is "very concerned" about the recent increase in gas prices.

The company has 4,000 vehicles and "we go through 200,000 gallons a month," he said. Even though the company buys in bulk, gas prices have risen by 30 to 40 cents a gallon in the last few months, increasing the company's costs by $60,000 to $80,000 a month.