Retail Gasoline Prices Drop Across The United States, More Declines Likely

U.S. gasoline prices plummeted in a slew of cities over the holiday weekend, with motorists in Houghton Lake, Michigan, able to pay — briefly — just 77 cents a gallon, USA Today reported Monday. While the prices in the town were back up by Monday, retail gasoline prices overall have trended steadily downward, dropping from an average of $3.58 a gallon to $1.89 for regular unleaded in GasBuddy’s 18-month nationwide survey.

“The continued and unprecedented plunge in the price of crude oil has continued, allowing gasoline prices in virtually the entire U.S. to continue plummeting," said Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst, NBC's KARE-TV reported. "From West Coast to East Coast, the decline has hit virtually everyone — and amazingly, we saw a gas price war yesterday in Houghton Lake, Michigan, where for a brief period of time GasBuddy confirmed stations selling at just 47 cents a gallon — prices unheard of in this century.”

In Alabama and Arkansas, the average statewide retail price of gasoline is $1.65 per gallon, in Texas it is $1.67 and it is $1.56 in Oklahoma. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, GasBuddy reported that average retail gasoline prices fell 8.1 cents per gallon over the past week, averaging $1.73 per gallon on Sunday.

However, the average retail price was still $2.08 a gallon in Philadelphia, $2.63 in Hawaii, $2.34 in Alaska and $2.76 in California. State and local fuel taxes contribute to such higher prices.

In the wake of the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, increased oil supply might send these prices even lower; Iran's oil ministers said they anticipate increasing oil production by 500,000 barrels a day. For the first time since 2003, Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined to below $28 a barrel, the Financial Times reported, and oil prices have plummeted almost 75 per cent in the past 18 months.