To $2.0691 a gallon in two weeks
The average price of regular gasoline dropped 13.3 cents to $2.0691 a gallon in two weeks, but the plunge may be abating, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. Prices are $1.2422 lower than a year ago, according to the survey of 2,500 filling stations, done in the two weeks ended Jan. 23. Gas prices may be nearing a trough after falling in every Lundberg survey since July. They will be hitting a bottom soon unless there is another plunge in crude oil prices, said Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey. “In the past 10 days, the wholesale prices that gasoline marketers and retailers pay are up,” Lundberg said. “Retail prices will most likely be bottoming soon, if they haven’t already.” The highest gas price in the lower 48 states was in San Francisco, at $2.54 a gallon. The lowest was in Albuquerque, an average of $1.73. Regular gasoline averaged $2.33 on New York’s Long Island, and $2.42 in Los Angeles. West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, declined $2.77, or 5.7 percent, to $45.59 a barrel in New York during the two weeks. Prices have fallen 58 percent since June 20. US oil output fell to 9.186 million barrels a day in the week ended Jan. 16, after reaching 9.192 million Jan. 9, the highest level in weekly Energy Information Administration data going back to 1983. US production has increased 70 percent in five years as companies have used horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to tap into hydrocarbon-rich layers of underground shale rock.