Gas Price Hikes

Re “Bulk of Gas Price Rise Is Flowing to Oil Companies,” April 15: As a small independent oil producer in Ventura County, I would like to point out that there are usually about 2.1 million barrels of oil a day refined in California. A third of the 900,000 barrels a day produced on- or offshore in California are produced by independent producers like me. We usually receive about $3 a barrel less than the price that producers receive for oil of the same quality in the rest of the country. Just as the service station operators are squeezed on the sales end by the refiners, the California independent oil producer is also affected by the pricing practices of the refiners.

Of the 51-cent price hike for a gallon of regular unleaded self-serve gas pointed out in your article, only about 7 cents a gallon comes from the increase in crude oil prices that the refiners pay the producers.

LARRY TRAVIS

Pacific Palisades