Del Papa to discuss gas prices at conference

Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa will discuss the rapid rise in gasoline prices with the California attorney general at an annual Federal Trade Commission conference in Reno on Thursday and Friday.

The conference had been planned before the rising gas prices became a major issue in Western states last month, Del Papa spokesman Steve George said.

But the jump in prices will be a major topic of discussion, George said.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is conducting an investigation into what he calls apparent price gouging by oil companies.

In California, a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has been selling for as much as $1.77 a gallon.

Elsewhere in the West, prices have ranged from $1.02 a gallon in Denver to $1.59 in Las Vegas.

The Justice Department announced Monday it also is looking into allegations of price gouging by gas companies in the West, but did not say it was announcing a full-scale investigation.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., last month asked the Justice Department to study the price hikes and determine whether an investigation of antitrust violations is warranted.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said some of the blame for rising gasoline prices may be on recent mergers by several major oil companies.

Among those mergers have been Exxon and Mobile, British Petroleum with Chicago-based Amoco and French Total with Belgian refiner Petrofina.

British Petroleum also is negotiating to buy Atlantic Richfield Co.

A spokesman for Arco in Los Angeles, one of the biggest suppliers of gasoline in the West, has said the petroleum industry has nothing to hide.

Paul Langland blamed the increases on several factors, including:

* A decision by OPEC last month to cut back on oil production to drive up prices.

* Four major refineries being closed for varying periods of time -- one is still closed -- when they normally would be increasing production because of the summer travel season.

"Throughout the world there was an increase in oil price of $5 a barrel over the last several months," Langland said. "More specifically, on the West Coast, we saw, starting about mid-March, a series of unrelated refinery incidents causing four of those refineries to shut down completely or not produce as much.

"All that has caused a tightening of supplies on the West Coast," Langland said.

But Paul Moreno, a spokesman for the American Automobile Association, said oil companies were taking advantage of the circumstances outlined by Langland to make huge profits.

The Common Ground Conference is a meeting of the antitrust units of 15 Western states' deputy attorneys general, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

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