US companies up prices of gas, heating oil

Exxon Corporation, the nation's largest oil company, raised its wholesale prices for gasoline and home-heating oil by a nickel a gallon Wednesday and Shell Oil Company, the No. 8 refiner, lifted its prices by roughly 3 cents a gallon. Texaco also confirmed it had raised its wholesale gasoline prices by 2 cents a gallon in the West. Mobil raised its gasoline and heating oil prices by 5 cents a gallon nationwide an d blamed price de-control for part of the increase.