US shift to ethanol to add 'few pennies' to gasoline price:Caruso

Washington (Platts)--11Apr2006

The expected 25 cent/gal increase in average summer gasoline prices in
the US from last year to this year, while mostly the result of stronger crude
oil prices, is also the result of the shift away from gasoline additive MTBE
to ethanol and to higher refinery margins, Guy Caruso, head of the US Energy
Information Administration, told reporters Tuesday.

Caruso estimated that stronger refinery margins in 2006 compared with
2005 represented about 6 cents/gal of the increase, while the shift to ethanol
represents a "few pennies, not much more" of the year-on-year price hike.

Higher crude prices are the biggest component of the increase, and could
represent as much as 19 cents/gal, he said.

The EIA Tuesday released its summer fuels price forecast, estimating that
US nationwide prices would average $2.62/gal nationwide over the second and
third quarters.

--Cathy Landry, cathy_landry@platts.com

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http://petrochemicalreport.platts.com.


 

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