Price at Pump Drops for Seventh Straight Week
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The average U.S. retail gasoline price fell to $2.38 a gallon, dropping for the seventh week in a row, and could decline another 23 cents by mid-October, the government said on Monday.
The national price to fill up with regular unleaded gasoline was down 11.9 cents over the last week and 43 cents lower from a year ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of service stations.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The average pump price has now fallen seven weeks in a row, dropping 66 cents since hitting a summer high of $3.04 a gallon on Aug. 7.
It is the second-largest unbroken drop in gasoline prices since pump costs fell 78 cents a gallon over a nine-week period beginning last October after Hurricane Rita hit, the EIA said.
U.S. drivers could see the national fuel price fall as low as $2.15 a gallon over the next two or three weeks, once cheaper spot prices for motor fuel are finally passed on to consumers at the pump, according to EIA analyst Mike Burdette.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fuel prices are falling because of lower crude oil, which accounts for about half the cost of making gasoline. While oil costs were up 90 cents to $61.45 a barrel in Monday trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange, that is still way down from the record $78.40 a barrel reached in mid July.
Retail gasoline prices at some stations across the country have already dropped below $2 a gallon, but the EIA has said it does not expect the national pump price to break the $2 threshold unless crude oil continues to decline sharply.
In the EIA's new weekly survey, West Coast service stations had the most expensive gasoline by region, down 8.8 cents to $2.72 a gallon. Los Angeles had the highest pump price among cities at $2.78 a gallon, down 8.8 cents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The cheapest gasoline was in the Midwest at $2.21 a gallon, down 11.2 cents. Cleveland had the best deal at the pump at $2.11, down 11.2 cents.
Separately, the EIA said the price truckers paid for diesel fuel fell 11.8 cents to $2.60 a gallon, down 20 cents from a year ago and the lowest since March 27.