Again an evening-up process has occurred in gasoline prices. California has been in a position to furnish cargo lots at lie a gallon, which can be shipped to the Atlantic seaboard for 2¢ a gallon. As a result, Standard Oil of New Jersey has cut its tank-wagon price I¢ and Standard of New York 2¢.
At present, the cheapest gasoline prices (tank-wagon rates) are: Los Angeles, 13.5¢; New Orleans, 14.5¢; Memphis, San Francisco, Seattle, 15¢. Gasoline is most expensive in Butte at
22¢, followed by Atlanta at 20.5¢, Minneapolis at 20.2¢ and Birmingham, Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington at 20c. Average price in 30 representative cities is now 18.5¢.
According to the U. S. Bureau of Mines, stocks of gasoline in this country fell only 22,000,000 gallons during last June, and at the end of that month stood at about 1,700,000,000—the high record for all time. In June, 1923, stocks fell 65,000,000 gallons, and in June, 1924, about 51,000,000 gallons. This year the California producers, heavily loaded still with stocks of crude oil, have been freely refining it and sending it East via the Panama Canal. Thus a price-cutting war has been precipitated all over the country. In such a contest, low cost marketers such as the long-established Standard Oil companies, enjoy a great advantage over high-cost marketers such as Sinclair, Pure Oil or Pan-American.