The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Riverside County dropped Tuesday for the 64th time in 65 days, decreasing 1.6 cents to $4.722.
The average price has dropped $1.429 over the past 65 days, including seven-tenths of a cent Monday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It is 9 cents less than one week ago, 37.1 cents lower than one month ago and nine-tenths of a cent cheaper than one year ago.
The average price has dropped $1.651 since rising to a record $6.373 on Oct. 5, 2022.
The national average price dropped for the 65th time in 68 days, decreasing 1.3 cents to $3.229. It is 1.7 cents less than one week ago, 19.2 cents lower than one month ago and 17.4 cents cheaper than one year ago.
The national average price has dropped 60.6 cents over the past 68 days, including one-tenth of a cent Monday. It dropped 61 consecutive days, was unchanged Wednesday and Thursday, rose two-tenths of a cent Friday, then resumed decreasing Saturday.
The national average price has dropped $1.787 since rising to a record $5.016 on June 14, 2022.
“We’ve barely eked out a drop in the national average over the last week, extending the streak to 11 straight weeks of decline, even as some states have seen prices jump, while others have seen prices continue to inch lower. Motorists can blame the OPEC+ meeting for causing oil to jump early last week and then plummet late last week for the volatility in gas prices,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which provides real-time gas price information from more than 150,000 stations.
“The good news is that as the dust settled, OPEC+ agreed to barely move the needle, deepening their production cuts by an additional 900,000 barrels per day in 2024, with Saudi Arabia extending their own million barrel per day cut through March. However, that wasn’t enough to offset concerns of falling global demand, which pushed oil back down to below $73 in Sunday night trading, giving hope that the national average still could fall to $2.99 per gallon by the end of the year.”