FTC upgrades gas price monitoring

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission is broadening its monitoring of gasoline markets around the country to gather information on daily price changes in an attempt to focus quickly on any unusual price spikes, the agency said.

FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said the agency has begun using a statistical model that is expected to track price spikes as they happen to identify factors contributing to the price fluctuations.

Data on retail gasoline prices, using credit card purchases from thousands of service stations in 360 cities, will be plugged into the model as will daily information on wholesale prices from 20 major urban areas, the agency said.

Retail prices have increased substantially since the first of the year, although they have leveled off in recent weeks. The average price of regular gasoline this week was $1.40 a gallon, 31 cents cheaper than at the same time a year ago, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The American Petroleum Institute, the major oil companies' trade group, told the FTC at a Washington conference Thursday that the price of regular grade gasoline has held steady over the last two weeks.

John Felmy, the API's chief economist, attributed the price increases this year to higher crude oil prices and the many blends of gasoline required for clean air purposes.

The new statistical model, said Muris, the FTC chairman, "will allow FTC staff to identify and track gasoline price spikes on a real-time basis and to identify as quickly as possible the contributing factors."

He said the commission plans to release two reports this year on the impact of industry consolidation on competition and pricing and the complex combination of factors that go into determining prices of all refined petroleum products.