Gas Prices Drop for Third Straight Week

[cnxvideo id=”508883″ placement=”ros”]The price of gasoline on Monday morning was down four cents compared with last week’s national average pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline. That’s the third consecutive weekly decline, but compared with the same day last year, prices are 46.1 cents a gallon higher.

Average gasoline pump prices fell in 45 of the 50 states last week, compared with 32 states where prices had fallen in the prior week, according to analysts at GasBuddy.

Prices fell the most in Ohio (down 10.4 cents), Michigan (9.6 cents), Illinois (8.6 cents), Indiana (8.2 cents) and Delaware (7.7 cents). Gas prices rose the most in Utah (up 4.4 cents), Montana (1.7 cents), Idaho (1.3 cents), North Dakota (0.6 cents) and Nevada (0.2 cents).

Even though crude prices have marched higher, demand for gasoline has continued to decline and commercial inventories are up by 26 million barrels year over year, according to GasBuddy. Contributing to weak demand is seasonally low miles driven, exacerbated by heavy rains in California that kept many motorists off the roads.

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Monday’s most common price for a gallon of regular gas in the United States was $2.199, 50 cents a gallon higher compared with last year and 10 cents a gallon higher than a month ago.

There are no U.S. gas stations charging more than $4.00 a gallon for gas (yet) and just 0.1% charging between $3.50 and $4.00 a gallon. No gas station is charging less than $1.50 a gallon, and more than about 87% are charging more than $2.00 a gallon.

The five states where average gasoline prices were cheapest were Ohio ($2.010), Indiana ($2.025), South Carolina ($2.027), Tennessee ($2.070) and Oklahoma ($2.071).

The five states posting the highest averages were Hawaii ($3.063), California ($2.798), Washington ($2.726), Alaska ($2.672) and Pennsylvania ($2.566).

Crude oil prices were down about 0.8% Monday morning, with West Texas Intermediate for March delivery trading at $52.75, after closing at $53.17 last Friday. The price reached an intra-day high of $53.46 in this morning.

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