Money is no object when ‘tank is empty’

Drivers stopping yesterday at the Watergate Exxon gas station viewed it as their last resort.

The station is convenient to commuters turning left off Rock Creek Parkway onto Virginia Avenue in Northwest. And most describe the service station and auto-repair shop as clean and service-friendly.

But at $2.29 for a gallon of regular, $2.39 for midgrade and $2.49 for premium yesterday, it has some of the highest prices in the District.

Bruce Saunders pulled up in a Chevrolet Astro van he drives for his part-time job with an organic farm in theShenandoah Valley.

“I’m about to run out; otherwise I would have waited until I got into Virginia because it’s 10 to 15 cents cheaper there,” Mr. Saunders said.

He filled up the van to save time, spending $34.30. “I figure it’s not worth the stop to save $3 to $4. Plus it was less than the $46 I expected to pay,” he said.

A State Department employee, who would not give her name, parked her Mazda Miata next to one of the station’s four pumps because it was the first station she saw.

“I’m only stopping because the tank is empty,” the driver said, before noticing the Watergate Chevronstation across Virginia Avenue was selling regular at $2.23 per gallon.

“Well, I’m already here,” she said with a shrug.

Although consumers tend to cut back on their driving when gas prices rise, Exxon station co-owner Roy Bouharb said he has not seen business lag in the past month although local prices have risen 27 cents since the end of April.

He said he has at least 20 to 50 customers a day at the station, which is open from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

By comparison, the Spring Valley Exxon station on Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest has several hundred gas customers daily, an attendant estimated.

Gasoline customers make up about half of the Watergate Exxon station’s sales. The rest is from the repair shop, which is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., inside the brick building adjacent to the Watergate West building.

Rod Alba, a lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, drove up to the two-lane gas station because he was close to an empty tank. “I’m not really cutting back on driving,” even though gasoline prices nationwide are averaging record highs of $2.06 this week, he said.

In the Washington area, the average price for a gallon of regular reached $2.04 yesterday.

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