The average price of gasoline in the United States has dropped for the first time in a period of 10 weeks to about $3.67 per gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey.
Lundberg Survey Inc. bases its data on information acquired from a total of about 2,500 gas stations around the country.
According to the Lundberg Survey, the average price for regular gasoline dropped 3.99 cents over the three weeks up to July 11 to $3.6699 per gallon.
Lundberg Survey President Trilby Lundberg said in a telephone interview that the gasoline price average may drop 4 cents to 6 cents more over the coming days.
The current price is lower by 7.91 cents compared to the average gasoline price obtained by the survey in the corresponding period a year ago.
Lundberg explained that the average gasoline price continues to decrease because refiners, enjoying the lower crude oil prices in the market, are passing down the savings to the consumers. As the price of crude oil remains steady or continues to decrease, further gas price cuts should be expected.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil posted a per barrel price of $100.83 at the New York Mercantile Exchange over the three-week period until Friday, representing a $6.43 decrease, equivalent to 6 percent.
This is the third week in a row that crude oil prices have dropped.
"The price decline came because of crude oil prices, which are reacting to the news that Libya eked out a production rise and Iraq output hasn't been decimated by the fighting there," said Lundberg.
The production increase in Libya is due to the re-opening of two terminals for oil exports. Libya's daily oil output has reached 350,000 barrels, which represents a more than 200 percent increase compared to oil output in the previous month, as per National Oil Corp. spokesman Mohamed Elharari.
Oil output in Iraq, despite two oil fields being taken over by Kurdish forces, has not suffered a significant decrease. Oil shipments from southern Iraq are expected to recover to a daily rate of 2.6 million barrels, compared to the daily rate of 2.42 million barrels in June, according to the International Energy Agency.
The Lundberg Survey revealed that the highest average regular gasoline price among the surveyed markets in the lower 48 states of the United States is in San Francisco at $4.12 per gallon. The lowest average regular gasoline price, on the other hand, is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at $3.35 per gallon.
The average regular gasoline price in California was $4.07 per gallon.
