Gasoline prices hit a five-year high Thursday in Northern Kentucky even as they dropped in the Cincinnati area, according to surveys for AAA.

        Average prices in Kentucky were $1.86 a gallon for unleaded regular, $2 for plus and $2.08 for premium, AAA's daily fuel gauge report showed.

        That's a record for regular and 2 cents a gallon higher than Wednesday, according to the survey. (Cincinnati's record, reached June 20, 2000, was $1.89 for regular.) Prices in Northern Kentucky not only were higher than they had been Wednesday, they also were the highest in the state.

GAS PRICES

Roundup of Tristate gas prices

        On the Ohio side of the river, Thursday's price averages were $1.79, $1.91 and $1.99, all down slightly from Wednesday.

        Gasoline has typically been a few pennies cheaper in Kentucky for most of the last year, in part because the state's motor fuels tax is more than a nickel a gallon less than Ohio's.

        Linda Casey, spokeswoman for Marathon Ashland Petroleum in Findlay, Ohio, said rising retail prices in Kentucky and falling prices in Southwest Ohio reflect what dealers believe drivers are willing to pay. “It's a brutally competitive market,” she said.
       

Dealer mystified

        Steve Harper, president of Harper Oil Products in Florence and chairman of the Kentucky Petroleum Marketers Association, said he knew of no reason that Kentucky prices should rise while Ohio prices fell.

        Reformulated gasoline, adopted to combat smog, probably isn't the culprit, he added, because it is sold all year in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.

        Mr. Harper said wholesale prices dropped overnight for the gas he sells at his Citgo and Chevron stations. He said he did not change retail prices overnight and lowered them at his Chevron station on U.S. 42 in Florence.

        Mr. Harper said the average price reported to AAA sounded excessive, but if it were accurate, it was as high as he could recall for unleaded regular.
       

Competitive for some

        Jeff Lykins, chairman of the Ohio Petroleum Marketers Association and president of Lykins Cos. in Milford, also was puzzled by Kentucky and Ohio markets going in different directions.

        However, he said his two Friends stations in the Milford area are selling regular at $1.61 a gallon and it's been that way for about a week because of competition.

        Mr. Lykins said his wholesale price probably dropped overnight and this will be the first time in days he has not lost money at $1.61 a gallon.

        He said many factors affect wholesale prices he pays, including American refinery output, the cost of oil refined and sold, and national and international oil futures markets.

        On the other hand, “the street drives the retail price,” Mr. Lykins said, and regardless of what he pays, he has to compete for drivers who would pass his stations for one that charges a penny less.

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