The average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline dropped by 4.7 cents in the past week, to start this week off at a price of $2.83, according to the latest data from GasBuddy. The cost of diesel fuel dipped by nearly a penny last week and now retails for $3.28 a gallon.
Month over month, the price is down by nearly two cents per gallon but is still more than 39 cents a gallon higher year over year. Last month the national average was $2.85, while the year-ago average was $2.44.
Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said:
Much of the country continues to enjoy broad decreases in gas prices as oil prices drop to $69 per barrel. In fact, with the exception of the West Coast where an earlier natural gas pipeline shut down caused prices to go up, nearly every state saw prices move lower.
The Great Lakes has seen prices drop 30-50 cents per gallon at individual stations since the start of October, leading [the] decliners. The fall relief that has been expected for weeks has finally arrived. Gasoline economics typically weaken shortly after summer, but we experienced somewhat of a delay due to concern over Iran sanctions and OPEC production, but seemingly the market has become more concerned with other factors, and thus far, the effect on motorists has been lower gas prices. While Great Lakes states may see prices bounce of current lows in the week ahead, much of the rest of the country will likely see additional downward movement
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Nearly every state (46) saw gas prices fall last week, with only the usual suspects seeing prices remain flat or rise a bit. Pump prices nationally have dropped more than seven cents a gallon in the past two weeks.
The highest average prices per gallon last week were reported from Hawaii ($3.84), California ($3.82), Washington ($3.53), Oregon ($3.39) and Alaska ($3.33).
States with the lowest average prices last week included Delaware ($2.56), South Carolina ($2.56), Mississippi ($2.57), Oklahoma ($2.58) and Louisiana ($2.58).
Prices dropped the most in Michigan (10 cents), Ohio (10 cents), Delaware (nine cents), Indiana (eight cents) and Kentucky (eight cents).
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for November delivery traded down about 0.3% in the noon hour Monday to $68.92, while Brent for January delivery traded at $79.37, up about 0.1%. The price differential (spread) between front-month WTI and Brent crude widened from $8.99 to $10.45 a barrel week over week.
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