The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County dropped Thursday to its lowest amount since Dec. 21, 2010, decreasing 1.5 cents to $3.276.
The average price has dropped 35 consecutive days and 61 of the past 62, decreasing 54.6 cents over that span, including 1.3 cents on Wednesday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
Allison Mac is a petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, a service that tracks gas prices across the nation. She said the rapid drop in the average gas price does not mean the price is dropping at the same rate everywhere. Mac said actual pump prices vary a lot.
"The range of gas prices from station to station, from street corner to street corner, there's a bigger difference now," Mac said.
Mac said that difference in price can be up to a dollar a gallon. She said the typical range is about 30 cents a gallon.
The average price is 8.6 cents less than one week ago, 41.3 cents lower than one month ago and 40.3 cents below what it was one year ago.
"Falling oil prices are the main reason" for the dropping gasoline prices followed by "a bit of a sell-off of the summer blend of gasoline," Marie Montgomery of the Automobile Club of Southern California told City News Service.
"The only question is whether refineries will adjust their production to tighten supply locally, which could slow or stop the price decline," Montgomery said.
