United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2004-07-07 monographic deposited born digital 16 p. GA 1.13:GAO-04-951T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T P0b002ee180381dd9 f:d04951t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T GAO-04-951T Corporate mergers Fuel prices Petroleum industry Petroleum prices Prices and pricing Econometric modeling Gasoline Competition Cost analysis Energy marketing Petroleum products California East Coast Gulf Coast West Coast Herfindahl-Hirschman Index Testimony A10814 Gasoline is subject to dramatic price swings. A multitude of factors cause volatility in U.S. gasoline markets, including world crude oil costs, limited refining capacity, and low inventories relative to demand. Since the 1990s, another factor affecting U.S. gasoline markets has been a wave of mergers in the petroleum industry, several of them between large oil companies that had previously competed with each other. For example, in 1999, Exxon, the largest U.S. oil company, merged with Mobil, the second largest. This testimony is based primarily on Energy Markets: Effects of Mergers and Market Concentration in the U.S. Petroleum Industry (GAO-04-96, May 17, 2004). This report examined mergers in the U.S. petroleum industry from the 1990s through 2000, the changes in market concentration (the distribution of market shares among competing firms) and other factors affecting competition in the U.S. petroleum industry, how U.S. gasoline marketing has changed since the 1990s, and how mergers and market concentration in the U.S. petroleum industry have affected U.S. gasoline prices at the wholesale level. To address these issues, GAO purchased and analyzed a large body of data and developed state-of-the art econometric models for isolating the effects of eight specific mergers and increased market concentration on wholesale gasoline prices. Experts peer-reviewed GAO's analysis. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T.pdf GAO-04-951T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-951T Testimony GAO-04-951T; Energy Markets: Mergers and Many Other Factors Affect U.S. Gasoline Markets; Corporate mergers Fuel prices Petroleum industry Petroleum prices Prices and pricing Econometric modeling Gasoline Competition Cost analysis Energy marketing Petroleum products California East Coast Gulf Coast West Coast Herfindahl-Hirschman Index