The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped Thursday for the 21st consecutive day, decreasing 3.7 cents to $3.916.
The average price has dropped 38.6 cents over the past 21 days, including 3.4 cents on Wednesday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
The decreases follow a seven-day stretch of increases totaling 75.7 cents that pushed the average price to its highest amount since May 4, 2014.
The average price is 20.8 cents less than one week ago and 2.4 cents lower than one year ago but 36.4 cents more than one month ago.
The Orange County average price also dropped for the 21st consecutive day, decreasing 3.3 cents to $3.886. It has dropped 38.9 cents over the past 21 days, including 4 cents on Wednesday.
The decreases follow a seven-day stretch of increases totaling 77.8 cents that pushed the average price to its highest amount since May 6, 2014.
The Orange County average price is 21.3 cents less than one week ago and 2.3 cents lower than one year ago but 39 cents more than one month ago.
“Prices have gone down because supply has increased,” Allison Mac, a West Coast petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which bills itself as the nation’s leading provider of retail fuel pricing information and data, told City News Service.
“The Energy Information Administration, a government organization that puts out a weekly report on the current state of petroleum supply, announced exceptional output by West Coast refineries, with a 92.1 percent utilization rate. We have not seen West Coast refineries running that well since Dec. 10, 2014, when they came in at 91.5 percent.”
—Staff and wire reports