http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000204/bdg.html

Friday February 4, 6:54 pm Eastern Time

---

U.S. W. Coast gasoline prices jump on run cut talk

---

HOUSTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. West Coast gasoline prices jumped higher on Friday amid persistent talk that a Los Angeles area refinery had cut crude runs.

Prices for California's ultraclean CARB gasoline rose by about five cents in Los Angeles to 83/84 cents a gallon and by the same margin in San Francisco to 79/80 cents.

A spokeswoman for the refinery told Reuters that runs had not been cut and that the refinery was running at full capacity, but the denial was greeted with some skepticism by traders.

``It's self-explanatory. (Refining) margins are very poor and it was decided to not run the crude. I guess officially they're not saying anything,'' said one trader.

Friday's buying interest, prompted by the talk of cuts in refinery runs, helped reverse a slide in West Coast gasoline prices over the last two weeks.

CARB diesel prices also firmed by about two cents to 88/89 cents per gallon in Los Angeles and 85/86 cents in San Francisco.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 04, 2000

Answers

Kaua'i prices up 2 cents this week...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 04, 2000.