BIS Review 60/2001  1  Accordingly, a refinery operating rate that languished at around 75 percent in the first half of the 1980s has risen to effectively full-capacity operations currently.
The pressure on these facilities impeded the conversion of the substantial buildup of crude oil inventories that occurred since early March into gasoline and, as a consequence, gasoline prices at retail continued to increase through early May. As was the case in 2000, some sharp regional differences in gasoline prices have emerged again this year.