LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped today to its lowest amount since Aug. 29, 2017, decreasing 1.4 cents to $3.043.
The average price has dropped 34 consecutive days and 37 of the past 38, decreasing 52.4 cents, including 1.6 cents on Friday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
The average price is 10.1 cents less than a week ago, 50 cents lower than a month ago and 71.5 cents below what is was one year ago. It has dropped 57.2 cents since the start of the year.
The Orange County average price dropped to its lowest amount since Oct. 25, 2017, decreasing 1.2 cents to $3.023. It has dropped 39 consecutive days, decreasing 49.6 cents, including 1.4 cents on Friday.
The Orange County average price is 8.6 cents less than one week ago, 47.6 cents lower than one month ago and 68.9 cents below what it was one year ago. It has dropped 52.2 cents since the start of the year.
The sharp increase in oil prices won't affect gasoline prices in Southern California “for some time,” according to Jeffrey Spring, the Automobile Club of Southern California's corporate communications manager.
“Although prices jumped in the past three days, they are still about half of what they were at the beginning of the year,” Spring told City News Service. “They jumped on the hope that Russia, Saudi Arabia (and now the U.S.) can agree on production cuts. If they can't in the next few days, prices may drop again.
“Demand is still very weak. OPIS is estimating that demand in the Western U.S. has been nearly halved compared to this time last year. As long as production is decreasing and inventories are increasing, I think we'll see these low prices at least for the next few weeks.”
U.S. crude oil closed up $3.68, or 14.5%, to $29 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, one day after increasing $5.01, 25%, to $25.32 a barrel, its sharpest percentage gain on record, according to a Dow Jones Market Data analysis of figures going back to 1983.
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