Speedway has influence on gas prices

Its headquarters are in Enon along Interstate 70 and it operates more than 1,350 stores in seven states.

Speedway describes itself as the nation’s fourth largest company-owned and operated chain of gasoline and convenience stores.

Patrick DeHaan, a petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, a website that tracks gas prices, said when Speedway raises prices, others usually follow its lead. It then gradually lowers prices and makes up the difference by drawing more gas buyers, he said.

“It’s not necessarily good or bad,” DeHaan said. “It’s just that they are the heavyweights in the market and this is how they want to operate their stations. Everybody follows them.”

Shane Pochard, a spokesman for Speedway, declined to discuss the company’s price-setting process. But he said it bases prices on “Speedway and Speedway alone.”

“Obviously, we monitor the market,” he said. “But how we may or may not influence, you’d have to ask the other (convenience stores) and gas stations in the country, or in the area, as to how we influence them.”

Pochard said Speedway makes only “pennies on the dollar when it comes to a gallon of gasoline” and instead looks to its convenience stores to make profits.

“Unfortunately, the price of gasoline is what people see on the streets as they drive by and that’s obviously what they are putting in their tanks,” he said.

In the first quarter, Speedway stores earned 13.08 cents per gallon compared with 11.95 cents per share a year ago.

In Ohio, regular-grade gasoline reached $4.11 per gallon as of May 2, according to the Energy Information Administration. This represented an increase of 21 cents per gallon compared with the prior week, and $1.27 more than a year ago, the agency said.

Nationally, the retail price for regular-grade gasoline stood at $3.96 per gallon. However, per-barrel costs for crude oil fell below $100 as U.S. demand softened.

Industry observers point to several causes, such as unrest in the Middle East, for higher gas prices. DeHaan said maintenance at two refineries near Chicago drove up prices in Ohio and the rest of the Great Lakes region.