Price tops $7 a gallon in Europe

LONDON -- One hundred fifty dollars to fill'er up.

That's what it cost Adam Mleasai, a 28-year-old builder, to fill his battered green Audi beneath the lit canopy of a BP station on north London's Finchley Road.

"It's so frustrating," he said, estimating that he now pays 80 pounds a week, about $150, to fill his gas tank. As British fuel prices edge toward 1 pound per liter, nearly $7 a gallon, that buys only about 83 liters, or 22 gallons.

"It is too expensive, but I need my car for work," Mleasai said late Thursday. "There is nothing else I can do."

Hurricane Katrina's wide-flung devastation, which put a crimp in U.S. oil production and refining, further tightened supplies already stretched by a booming worldwide demand. Gasoline and diesel prices have inched up to record levels in many countries. From London to Tokyo to Mexico City, motorists and lawmakers are asking the question: How high can the pump prices go?

Ramifications are widespread. In Thailand, the government has proposed closing filling stations earlier at night to reduce consumption.