NEW GASOLINE GRADE TO RAISE U.S. REFINING COSTS

  A new grade of unleaded gasoline
  now being test marketed will increase refining costs when
  refiners can least afford it, according to officials attending
  the National Petroleum Refiners Association conference here.
      The new grade of unleaded gasoline has an octane level of
  89 compared with over 90 for super unleaded and 87 for regular
  unleaded gasoline.
       Amoco Corp &lt;AN> has test-marketed the new mid-grade
  gasoline and hopes to sell it on a regular basis in the South,
  East and Midwest by the beginning of June, according to Paul
  Collier, executive vice president of marketing.
      Phillips Petroleum &lt;P> expects to begin marketing the new
  89 octane unleaded gasoline in May, sources said.
      Converting current refinery operations to produce the 89
  octane unleaded gsoline could cost hundreds of millions of
  dollars per refinery but that depends on the present capacity
  and intensity of the refinery, said Amoco's Collier.
      But not all oil company's welcome the introduction of
  another grade of unleaded gasoline.
      "Three grades are not warranted," said Henry Rosenberg,
  chairman of Crown Central Petroleum &lt;CNP>. "Refiners will have
  to upgrade again," he added.
      "An investment will have to be made," said Archie Dunham,
  executive vice president of petroleum products at Conoco, an
  operating subsidiary of DuPont Corp &lt;DD> in order to upgrade
  refinery operations.
  

