CALIFORNIA: Gasoline prices drop to last year’s levels

California motorists are cruising into their fourth straight week of dropping gas prices. Averages are at or even below the price levels of this time last year in some areas, according to the American Automobile Association.

While that may sound great to Californians, where the statewide average price is $2.537 for a gallon of regular grade (87 octane) self-serve gasoline, motorists in at least ten other states are paying far less – nearly 65 cents a gallon less in Oklahoma, for example.

"Oil industry analysts point out that crude oil has jumped back up to about $55 a barrel from a low of below $50 on news that the President is calling for a doubling of the strategic oil reserve and signs that OPEC is honoring its pledge to cut oil production," says Carol Thorp, a spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. "However, local prices are continuing to drop because refiners in California have an excess supply of the winter blend of gasoline, which they will no longer be able to sell after the end of February because of air quality regulations."

Here are Central Valley market averages on Jan. 26, as reported by the American Automobile Association with last week’s averages in parentheses:
• Bakersfield, $2.512 ($2.582)
• Visalia-Porterville, $2.578 ($2.599)
• Fresno, $2.501 ($2.554)
• Merced, $2.580 ($2.625)
• Modesto, $2.503 ($2.558)
• Stockton-Lodi, $2.534 ($2.604)
• Sacramento, $2.523 ($2.573)
• Yolo, $2.471 ($2.524)
• Chico, $2.518 ($2.568)

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $2.514, which is 5.9 cents lower than last week. In San Diego, the price is $2.52, which is 7.9 cents below last week's price, the AAA says.

The lowest pump prices in the state on Jan. 26 are found in Bakersfield, according to Gasbuddy.com, where a Flying J truck stop on Highway 99 is selling gasoline for $2.19 per gallon. That’s 16 cents less than last week’s lowest Gasbuddy price in California.

The lowest market average in California is in Orange County at $2.436, $2.514, according to the AAA. That’s down 7.8 cents since last Friday and down 13.3 cents in the past two weeks.
The highest market average price found by the AAA in California on Jan. 26 is in Santa Barbara at $2.696, down $2.753, down 5.7 cents from last week, and down 11 cents in two weeks.

The highest gasoline price that Gasbuddy.com could find in the entire state on Jan. 26 is in the ski resort village of Kirkwood where a convenience store is selling gas for $3.47 per gallon. That is 48 cents higher than the highest price Gasbuddy found a week ago in California. And if they were around to rewrite the lyrics to their Broadway smash “Oklahoma!” Rogers and Hammerstein might opt to extol the state’s gasoline prices rather than its “barley, carrots and pertaters.” That’s because in Shawnee, Okla., where hawks are probably making their “lazy circles in the sky” over gasoline stations, you will find the lowest gasoline prices in the United States, according to reports from the online fuel price posting service Gasbuddy.com.

A Shell station there is selling regular for $1.74 a gallon. Three other Shawnee stations are just a penny or two higher, according to Gasbuddy.

Shawnee is described by its chamber of commerce as a town “rich in textures reminiscent of Norman Rockwellian, freckle-faced times, with downtown streets still paved with brick and memories.” No mention of hawks, however.

According to Gasbuddy, at least ten states – Oklahoma, Missouri, South Carolina, Iowa, Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia, Arkansas, North Dakota and Minnesota – have average, statewide, gasoline prices of under $2 per gallon as of Jan. 26.

Gasbuddy bases its figures on reports from volunteer “price spotters” reporting specific locations in the U.S. and Canada. The AAA’s prices are market averages for self-serve regular grade (87 octane) gasoline. They are calculated from credit card purchases. Not every station is surveyed and not every market is included in the AAA report.

Both price services note that there can be wide variations within a market.
CVBT

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