Despite drop, Utah has 5th highest gas prices

"We would have to have some type of report that individuals or companies are meeting together and are entering into some type of agreement to artificially inflate the price of fuel," he said. "And if that was occurring, who would have access to that conversation, who would actually report it to the state?"

John Hill, executive director of the Utah Petroleum Marketers and Retailers Association, shed some light into recent high prices Tuesday. He said two of the state's five refineries briefly closed operations in August. "They shut down in order to move from summer blends to winter blends," Hill said. "Pretty much every refinery schedules some time to do routine maintenance, but also to do the blends."

Hill acknowledged that refineries in all states with cold winters have to briefly close for winter formulations, but he said many of the cold-winter states have access to Gulf of Mexico oil, which may be selling at a cheaper price, than the oil piped or trucked into Utah from Canada, Wyoming and eastern Utah.

Hill said he did not have information about profit margins of the oil companies with operations based in Utah.

Locally, people are driving less because of the weak economy, said AAA spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough, resulting in lower demand for gas.

"The price of oil is dropping," she said. "I don't know what it'll do in Utah, but prices are dropping nationally."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com