Federal Probe Forces Oil Firms to Justify Prices : Gasoline: The government has subpoenaed documents and explanations from industry officials. The action moves the inquiry to a higher level but falls short of a criminal probe.

The Justice Department on Thursday escalated its investigation of the soaring gasoline prices that accompanied the Persian Gulf crisis, issuing civil subpoenas seeking documents and formal explanations from oil companies, refiners and marketers.

While the issuing of the subpoenas--known formally as civil investigative demands--marks a higher level of inquiry in the two-month probe, the fact that the government did not seek grand jury subpoenas signaled that it has not found signs of criminal antitrust violations.

“We aggressively will pursue this investigation until we determine whether or not violations of antitrust law contributed to the rise in gasoline prices,” said James F. Rill, assistant attorney general for antitrust.

The average national price for self-service unleaded gasoline jumped from $1.075 per gallon the day before Iraq invaded Kuwait to $1.115 only two days later, according to the American Automobile Assn. The current average is $1.346, or 27.1 cents more than on Aug. 1.

Since opening their probe four days after the Kuwait invasion, government investigators have conducted voluntary interviews with representatives of major oil companies and independent refiners and marketers and collected statistical data on gas prices and supplies.

“That phase of the investigation developed substantial information about the nature of crude oil and gasoline markets and how they behaved in the wake of the Aug. 2 invasion,” Rill said. “It also provided us with an opportunity to have the parties explain the factors that caused them to raise gasoline prices.

“With the civil investigative demands, we will be able to examine more closely those explanations and also pursue some issues for which we don’t yet have answers.”

While Rill would not detail those issues, they are believed to center on whether there was any communication among oil producers and marketers that led to the price spurts.

The focus of the inquiry, in which the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Energy and various state attorneys general are cooperating, is to determine whether there was any collusion in the setting of the higher prices.

Oil industry officials voiced optimism that the investigation would result in no civil or criminal charges.

“This investigation, we’re certain, will conclude, as did similar investigations in the past, that the oil industry has priced its products responsibly in a chaotic market,” John Lord, a spokesman for Mobil Oil Corp., said.

A similar inquiry conducted in Britain, he said, “concluded there was no price gouging or fixing--that the rapid escalation was the result of market forces.” Lord noted that Mobil had not recovered all of the rising costs it has incurred as a result of the Mideast turmoil.

“Exxon’s prices reflect its assessment of competitive market conditions,” said Les Rogers, a spokesman for Exxon Corp.

The information being sought by the government is likely to include documents that investigators have reason to believe exist and answers to specific questions about the companies’ actions in the wake of the invasion.

If investigators find any evidence of criminal antitrust violations, they would halt the process of seeking answers through the civil subpoenas and move to convene a grand jury, according to a former member of the antitrust division.