Gasoline prices continue to drop

LOS ANGELES
July 18, 2008 5:28am

Gasoline prices are down for the fourth week in a row in California on July 18, according to two price surveys.

Were the decline to continue at the current pace, $4 gasoline would be but a memory by Thanksgiving.

Oil prices dropped for three straight days on the futures market this week but if there is much of a connection, industry experts say it would take a month or more to be reflected in retail prices. Even with this week’s drop, crude oil prices are 40 percent higher than they were in January and 80 percent higher than a year ago.

Another factor is supply and demand. Demand has been dropping, down about 200,000 barrels of gasoline a day since this time last year, according to government figures.

Here are Central Valley market averages on July 18 (driving from south to north) as reported by the American Automobile Association with last week’s (July 11) averages in parentheses and [July 4] prices in brackets:

• Bakersfield, $4.501 ($4.554) [$4.573]

• Visalia-Porterville, $4.560 ($4.604) [$4.638]

• Fresno, $4.524 ($4.571) [$4.608]

• Merced, $4.510 ($4.541) [$4.583]

• Modesto, $4.387 ($4.452) [$4.494]

• Stockton-Lodi, $4.386 ($4.446) [$4.515]

• Sacramento, $4.388 ($4.433) [$4.487]

• Yolo, $4.388 ($4.435) [$4.483]

• Chico, $4.424 ($4.486) [$4.519]

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $4.491 per gallon, which is 6.3 cents less than last week. In San Diego, the price is $4.458, which is 5.4 cents lower than last week's price.

California’s highest market average price on July 18 is in Santa Barbara at $4.576. But even that price is down 5.7 cents in a week.

There’s a Shell station in San Mateo that continues to post what may be the highest price found anywhere in California by the volunteer price spotters of the website GasBuddy.com -- $5.21.

The lowest market average in California on July 18 is Yuba City at $4.351, according to the AAA.

California’s lowest prices seem to be in the Fairfield-Vallejo area where GasBuddy.com has found an independent station asking $4.15 for a gallon of gas and others about four cents higher.

GasBuddy has found two stations – one in Goleta and the other across the state in Markleeville posting a price of $4.99.

The lowest price in the country may be $3.71 on July 18, according to GasBuddy, whose price spotters report that price at gas stations in Tucson, Ariz., and Piedmont, Boiling springs and Greenville, S.C.

GasBuddy bases its figures on reports from volunteer “price spotters” reporting specific locations in the U.S. and Canada. They are not independently confirmed.

The AAA’s prices are market averages for self-serve regular grade (87 octane) gasoline. They are calculated daily from credit card purchases.

Not every station is surveyed and not every market is included in either report. Both price surveys note that there can be wide variations within any market.