Oil prices continue to fall and have dropped below $55, a huge plunge from nearly $100 in June. The drop has been so quick that it is not entirely reflected in gasoline prices. The price for an average gallon of regular has fallen below $2.20 in five cities. They are likely to be joined by several more within weeks.

The cities are Santa Fe, N.M. ($2.16); Lubbock, Texas ($2.17); Oklahoma City ($2.17); St. Louis ($2.18); and Amarillo, Texas ($2.18). Prices in another eight cities are under $2.25, according to widely followed data from GasBuddy. Many of these cities are in states not far from the huge refineries in Houston, so the transportation cost to the retail pump is low.

Aside from proximity to refineries, many of these cities are in states with low gas taxes. New Mexico’s gas tax ranks 43rd among all states at $0.189 per gallon, according to the Tax Foundation’s analysis from 2013. Missouri’s is 45th at $0.173. Oklahoma’s is 46th at $0.170. Texas’s is 38th at $0.20. For the sake of contrast, the state with the highest gas tax, New York, is at $0.50 per gallon.

The average gasoline price nationwide is $2.52 and plummeting. Look for $2.20 prices in dozens of cities before the end of January.

GasBuddy methodology: With an army of more than 30 million users updating fuel prices throughout the United States and Canada and on-staff experts to interpret what it all means, no other source offers better insight, benchmarks and analysis than GasBuddy. More than 100,000 stations are seeing multiple price updates each and every day.

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