LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped two-tenths of a cent today to $4.675, one day after remaining unchanged.
The average price is eight-tenths of a cent less than one week ago and 1.1 cents lower than one month ago but $1.518 more than one year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It has dropped 4.1 cents since hitting the record high of $4.716 on Nov. 27.
The Orange County average price was unchanged, remaining at $4.644, one day after dropping one-tenth of a cent. It is 1.4 cents less than one week ago and 1.6 cents lower than one month ago but $1.506 higher than one year ago. It has dropped 4.5 cents since moving within one-tenth of a cent of equaling its record high Nov. 26.
``Gas prices are slowly dropping,'' Jeffrey Spring, the Automobile Club of Southern California's corporate communications manager, told City News Service.
``If oil prices remain around $70 per barrel, we should see prices continue to drop, but the speed at which they drop is a good guess. It could be until after the new year when we see more significant price drops."
The price of a barrel of West Texas intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped $1.52 to $70.86 Friday. It has dropped 16.3% from its 52-week high of $84.65 hit on Oct. 26.
Crude oil costs account for slightly more than half of the pump price, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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