UPDATE 1-Oil execs to take heat from US lawmakers Tuesday

(Adds new record average pump price, lawmaker statement)

By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - Five U.S. oil company executives set to testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday about soaring gasoline prices and record industry profits will likely offer a common defense: It's not our fault.

U.S. average pump prices have risen steadily since the beginning of 2008 and on Monday hit a new record of $3.29 a gallon, heaping yet more pressure on a U.S. economy beleaguered by an imploding housing market and recession fears.

Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a long-time oil industry critic and chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, will chair the hearing called "Drilling for Answers: Oil Company Profits, Runaway Prices and the Pursuit of Alternatives."

Executives from the three biggest U.S.-based oil companies -- Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) -- will attend, as well as U.S. representatives of BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

With heated questions expected from Markey and other Democrats on the panel, oil executives are likely to point to U.S. crude oil prices, which have skyrocketed from below $20 in early 2002 to a record $111.80 a barrel earlier this month.

"Gasoline and diesel prices are being set in what we consider to be a crude-driven market," said Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies on behalf of big U.S. oil companies.

In other words, there is no shortage of refined products like gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel, and U.S. companies have little control over a world market dominated by geopolitical events like supply disruptions in Venezuela, Nigeria and Iraq.