NATCHEZ — With several Mississippi and nearby Louisiana cities boasting lower gas prices than those in Natchez, some local residents are scratching their heads while swiping their credit cards.

Independent Oil Company Owner Charles Zucarro said local prices are dependent on the initial cost of a gallon of gas.

“In Collins, Miss., gas is generally about 12 cents a gallon cheaper than we can get out of Baton Rouge,” he said. “It’s simply based on freight weights and the actual cost of fuel.”

The same holds true for places like Hattiesburg and Jackson, he said.

Doug MacIntyre, senior oil analyst for the National Energy Information Administration, said freight weights and shipping costs could depends on a number of factors.

“It depends on where pipelines are, where terminals are,” he said. “Two cities right next to each other probably wouldn’t see a big difference.”

Zucarro, who owns the Exxon stations in Natchez, said he pays approximately $3.43 per gallon for gas, and even with his prices set at $3.55 per gallon, it’s difficult to make a profit.

Three and a half percent of every credit card swipe goes to credit card companies, he said, which means if someone swiped his or her card for a gallon of gas — $3.55 — approximately 12 cents would go to credit card companies.

“We’re trying to get our profit up to 20 cents a gallon,” he said. “That’s not a lot of profit.”

MacIntyre said gas prices vary from city to city for any number of reasons, including local competitiveness. If there are more gas stations in one area versus a few in another area, the stations in the less- populated place will have a higher volume of customers, so they can afford to drop their prices.

“Areas with a higher rent (for stations) will see higher prices a lot of times,

he said. “It also sometimes depends on where stations are located. The one by my house is located right by an entrance ramp to an interstate, so that tends to be more expensive than another area, because if people are about to start driving (a long distance), they want to fill up.”

With Walmart offering a 10-cent discount per gallon of gas until Sept. 30 when customers use a Walmart card at the pump, Zucarro said he’s lost about 25 percent of his usual business volume.

“If you want to get out here and sell (gas) and lose money selling it, you’ll actually get some of your business back, but you’ve got to make up for it somewhere else,” he said. “It’s not the same with big companies.”

Director of National Media Relations for Walmart Tara Raddohi said she could not speak to any financial implications the price cut has made on the company, but the pricing initiatives are funded in the same manner as other rollback programs.

“The gas prices are competitive in each market and vary by market,” she said. “We strive to be the price leader in every market where we operate stations.”

But if getting the lowest price means going out of the way to do it, it isn’t always the best idea, MacIntyre said.

“If you can save 10 cents a gallon and you have a 15 gallon tank, at most you’re saving $1.50,” he said. “That’s important, but (to go) out of your way to save it, you have to decide if it’s worth it.”

Because of its necessity, MacIntyre said, gas is a cost everyone notices daily.

“What I always like to point out to people, and especially drivers who are paying for gasoline, is gasoline is one of the few products I can think of where the price is very visible,” he said. “If the price goes up 10 cents in one station and down the block it hasn’t, unless you’re tied to the station through credit cards … the consumer has the ability to go where the cheapest gas is.”

Zucarro said even the way gas prices are initially set has changed.

“The way it used to work is when the stock went up, gas went up, when the stock went down, gas went down,” he said. “Now there’s no rhyme or reason. Gas is up 10 cents a gallon today, and there’s no reason for it to be that way.”

On the other hand, MacIntyre said, initial gas prices oftentimes still jump or fall based on the state of the economy.

“By the time (gas) gets to the stations, there’s a lot more that’s been happening upstream,” he said. “It starts out with the price of crude oil, and that can go up and down really substantially based on a number of factors, including what people expect the economy to do,” he said.

“For example, when economic news comes out that is not so good, a lot of times we see the price go down. The assumption is that when the economy goes down, there won’t be as much activity going on.”

MacIntyre said it’s almost impossible to get an accurate national average, because there are approximately 160,000 gas stations around the country.

“To get a true average, you’d have to weigh (the gas stations) based on daily consumption, which no one really knows,” he said. “Everyone has their own methodology for coming up with (the average).”

The fuel gauge report is the average most people consider the best on a daily basis, he said. But the Energy Information Administration also releases an average every Monday.

The current national average gas price is $3.594, according to the fuel gauge report. Monday, the EIA reported the average price as $3.579 — up from June 27, which stood at $3.574.

Most gas stations in Natchez, including the Exxons Zucarro owns, were priced at $3.55 Friday.

No matter the reason for jumps in prices, Zuccaro said he has no choice but to make a profit.

“The pie is only so big and the slices are only so big. You try to get the biggest slice you can,” he said.

“The slices get smaller and smaller as more competition comes in.”