Gasoline Prices Slip to Three-Month Low in Lundberg Survey
Retail gasoline prices tumbled to the lowest level in more than three months in the Lundberg Survey as crude oil dropped for a sixth straight week.
U.S. drivers paid an average $2.7108 a gallon for regular gasoline at pumps across the nation in the two weeks ended Aug. 7, according to Lundberg Survey Inc.
Prices fell 10.77 cents a gallon in the survey, which is based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, California-based company. Gasoline cost about 81 cents a gallon less than a year ago.
Pump prices declined to the lowest level since an April 24 survey due to lower crude oil prices in combination with high output from refineries, according to Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey. U.S. refineries ran at 96.1% of capacity in the week ended July 31, the highest rate since August 2005.
In the next survey period, “It’s very likely we will see a decline of similar magnitude,” Lundberg said Aug. 9 in a telephone interview.
The highest price for gasoline in the lower 48 states among the markets surveyed was in Los Angeles, at $3.80 a gallon, Lundberg said. The lowest was in Charleston, South Carolina, where customers paid an average of $2.19 a gallon. Regular gasoline averaged $2.78 a gallon on Long Island, New York.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 8.9% to $43.87 a barrel in the two weeks to Aug. 7. Gasoline futures on the Nymex declined 11% to $1.623 a gallon in the same two-week period.
Nationwide stockpiles of motor fuel rose 811,000 barrels to 216.7 million in the week ended July 31, according to government data. Gasoline consumption averaged about 9.5 million barrels a day over the past four weeks.
U.S. refineries burned 17.1 million barrels of oil a day the week of July 31, the most in Energy Information Administration records dating to 1989.
