Claflin University senior Gary Mills shakes his head in frustration while filling up his vehicle at the John C. Calhoun Drive Hot Spot Friday morning.

The numbers on the gas pump continue to rise $5 ... $10 ... $20 while the number of gallons placed into the tank don’t go up as fast as they used to.

“Bills, bills, bills,” Mills said, gazing at the pump that is seemingly mocking him. “It is ridiculous. For a college student away from his family, it is just hard to go home.”

The Lake City resident says those 100-mile trips have become less and less frequent as other financial obligations, such as paying off college tuition, take priority.

Through his weekly travels, Mills said he puts $40 a week into his tank and that is just for local excursions.

“You got to go to work, you have to go to class. I got rent, light bills, utilities. It is rough,” he said.

Gasoline prices are the highest ever seen in Orangeburg, topping previous highs seen in September 2005 immediately in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Then, the city had gas prices ranging from $2.999 to $3.399 a gallon for regular unleaded, but quickly fell as supplies disrupted by the storm returned to more normal levels.

A Times and Democrat survey of 19 region stations showed the least-expensive self-serve regular unleaded gasoline sold for $3.359 a gallon Friday morning at the Dodge’s Store on U.S. 301 and Cannon Bridge Road as well as the Orangeburg Murphy’s USA gas station at the North Road Plaza in front of Wal-Mart.

The price is about 30 cents higher than those reported one month ago and are about 60 cents higher than Christmas prices.

Diesel prices at seven city service stations with prices easily visible from the roadway showed ranges from $3.959 and $4.069.

The lowest diesel prices of stations surveyed sold at the Dodge’s Store and the Murphy U.S.A. for $3.959.

Diesel prices Friday ranged from $3.959 a gallon to $4.069 a gallon at the Sunoco A Plus on the U.S. 21 Bypass.

Statewide, regular unleaded was averaging about $3.436 a gallon, up 31 cents from one month ago and 68 cents from a year ago, according to the Web site, www.southcarolinagasprices.com. The Web site allows motorists to post and view recent retail gasoline prices in their region and is operated by GasBuddy Organization Inc.

Nationally, according to this same Web site, regular unleaded averaged about $3.584 a gallon, up 33 cents from a month ago and 69 higher than a year ago.

Impact on jobs

Paul Bishop, who works as an independent trim carpenter and logs about 50,000 miles annually in a 1984 Chevy Suburban, says while some have the option to downsize to a more economical vehicle, he does not.

“It is my trade that I have to have a big vehicle,” he said. “This is my livelihood.”

On Friday, he filled up 30 gallons for $103.10 at the Hot Spot, which sold regular unleaded for $3.41 a gallon.

“Orangeburg does not have enough business for us,” he said. “Thereby we have to travel to areas like Augusta, Columbia, Charleston. If I haul a tool trailer ... my gas is cut in half, so I double my gas prices. It is not uncommon to fill this up three times a week. There is just more overhead I have to absorb.”

Bishop says he wants some answers as to the reason for the high prices.

“What the oil companies are doing is piracy, taking advantage of the situation,” he said. “If it is not piracy, why are they showing record profits? I can’t go out and raise my rates three times as normal in three years like a gas company can. I think the federal government ought to jump in there. Oil companies should not be showing these record profits; they should be struggling like everyone else.”

Trucking

Orangeburg’s JS&J Trucking Inc., a cargo shipment company primarily for Lowe’s Home Improvement distribution centers in North Carolina, runs about 20 trucks from the Port of Charleston, down from 35 trucks in December 2007.

“The fact that fuel prices have risen so high people are parking trucks, selling trucks or going over the road,” she said, noting the fuel surcharge added by steamship lines basically eats up any compensation the trucker may get for fuel costs. The difference is about 10 percent to 15 percent of the cost.

“It has been crucial for us now,” JS&J Trucking manager Dee Elliott said. “Truckers depend on steamship lines to help compensate the load.”

On top of this, Elliott said freight movement, along with the economy, has fallen off, reducing shipment runs from six days a week to three days.

“There is a double whammy,” she said.

In light of rising gasoline prices, she foresees that truck drivers still making payments on their trucks will most likely have to fold.

“They will not be able to make it,” she said. “I think it will come to a point where everything is going to stop. They will have no choice. I think we will see a bunch of trucks being returned to dealers or parked.”

While most expressed their frustration, others were taking the high prices in stride.

Optimism

Deni Quay, Orangeburg resident and Holy Trinity Catholic Church parishioner, says the record high prices have done little to curtail either her driving or spending habits.

She credits this to living simply and God’s overflowing generosity to her in helping her keep her multiple volunteer outreach efforts going throughout the area, including hospice and visiting the sick and homebound.

“It has not hampered anything yet,” she said. “It is a faith issue for me. I figure if I keep going, the Lord is going to provide. We are going to have money, we are gong to have the gas, or something is going to come from somewhere. It has not curtailed my activity yet. We have always had what we needed.”

Orangeburg resident and mother of six, Amy Dent, says while she does not worry too much about gas prices, the traditional trip to visit family at Cape Cod in Massachusetts has been postponed for the short term.

“The next time we go to the Cape we are going to rent one of those big RV’s and drive it up,” she said. “But we are not obviously going to do that anytime soon. The last time we flew and that was an absolute fiasco.”

But she has not only been able to adequately provide for her family, she has been able to continue to contribute to charitable organizations.

“We always have enough,” she said. “We will always be able to pay our bills. If you give money away, it will always come back.”

Gas price scene

The record high gasoline prices have advanced sharply in recent days, partly because refiners have been switching over from selling winter-grade gasoline to the more-expensive, but less-polluting, form of the fuel the government requires them to sell in the summer. That process, which made winter-grade fuel more scarce, is nearly complete now, suggesting that price increases could slow.

Retail gas prices have also been following oil futures’ record rally, although prices haven’t risen as steeply as oil futures.

Crude prices have jumped about 80 percent in one year, while retail gas prices have gone up 24 percent in that time.

This week light, sweet crude peaked at close to $120 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

While a one-day strike by oil workers in Nigeria, a major U.S. supplier, helped push oil prices somewhat lower this week, most analysts are not willing to predict that oil’s record run is over due to investor concerns about tight supplies amid growing demand, meaning prices are likely to climb at least through the summer driving season.

Local business impact

Bamberg’s Brabham Oil Co. spokesman Brad McCully said through reading the various news reports, there seems to be an ample supply of crude oil.

“I can’t understand why refinery rates are being cut back unless inventories are full and I can’t understand why we are exporting diesel fuels to Europe when ours is over $4 a gallon,” McCully said. “All these things help keep the price propped up.”

And McCully said prices would be even higher if ethanol fuel was not on the market increasing the competitiveness.

“I think we are about 10 cents a gallon cheaper because of ethanol availability,” he said. “

As to the future, McCully, in exasperation, said ‘good night!’ -- noting predictions are all over the board.

Some analysts say crude prices could surpass $200 a barrel in four years, possibly pushing gasoline prices to as high as $7 a gallon by 2012 in some areas of the country.

Others, he noted, have said that “what goes up must come down.”

Whatever happens, McCully said this is going down as one of the lowest retail profit margin years, with the average retail profit margin about 6 cents per gallon.

“As the price of gasoline is rising, people selling it on the streets margin is suppressed,” he said, explaining that the wholesale increase of 5 cents is too fast for retailers to keep up with.

Consumer price sensitivity has also intensified competition among retailers, resulting in declining gross margins, McCully said.

In 2007, the average gross margin on a gallon of gasoline was 13.8 cents, according to data from the Oil Price Information Service.

The National Association of Convenience Stores estimates after factoring in costs (including credit card fees -- an estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of customers use credit cards to purchase gasoline), the break-even mark-up for a gallon of gasoline is 12 cents to 13 cents, leaving profit margins at 1 to 2 cents a gallon.

Higher costs have also increased expenses with retailers having to pay more for fuel inventory, leading to additional interest payments on lines of credit, according to the NACS.

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.

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