Gasoline prices continue their retreat
Gasoline prices have fallen again, tumbling an average of 5 cents a gallon in the Houston area over the past week as crude prices dove and gasoline supplies remained plentiful.
The average price of a gallon of gasoline slid to $2.09 a gallon from $2.14 a week ago, according to GasBuddy.com, a website that tracks gasoline prices and refining activity. Gasoline prices, at their lowest levels in more than a decade, are running 3 cents a gallon below last year’s average in Houston and 9 cents lower than a month ago. Nationally, the average gasoline price fell 4 cents a gallon to $2.28, down 6 cents from a year ago and 7 cents from a month earlier.
“Another week, another nearly countrywide decline in average gasoline prices,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.
The decline is unusual for this time of year, when prices often rise along with increased demand as Americans take to the road for summer vacations. Much of the decline has to do with crude oil prices, which have fallen sharply in recent weeks, to below $45 a barrel.
Crude settled at $44.20 a barrel in New York on Monday, a seven-month low.
But DeHaan said the cheap gasoline prices won’t last much longer, particularly if hurricanes force the shutdowns of oil rigs and refineries along the Gulf Costs. “Motorists shouldn’t expect too much more of the nice price declines we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks as hurricane season comes into view,” he said.