NOTTINGHAM, MD—For the second straight week, the nation’s average gas price has fallen, declining 3.3 cents per gallon from a week ago to $3.14 per gallon on Monday, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.

The national average now stands unchanged from a month ago and $1.01 per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 0.9 cents in the last week and stands at $3.27 per gallon.

“Gasoline prices have started to slide over the last few days as oil prices have plunged, largely fueled by a continued global surge in Covid-19 cases and concern that fuel demand may shrink as more companies table return to work plans and the summer driving season comes to a close,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “Excluding the plunge in gasoline prices as Covid unfolded in 2020, Sunday saw one of the largest single day declines in the national average in nearly three years. The good news won’t end there, either, as I fully expect the national average could drop back under $3 per gallon in the next three weeks. The bottom line for motorists is that if they don’t absolutely need to fill up, they should avoid doing so as fuel prices are nearly guaranteed to continue to decline in every state in the coming week.”

GAS PRICE TRENDS

• The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists was $2.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week, followed by $2.89, $3.09 and $2.79.
• The average cost at the priciest 10% of stations stands at $4.22 per gallon, down 2 cents from a week ago, while the lowest 10% average $2.66 per gallon, down 5 cents from last week.
• The median U.S. price is $2.99 per gallon, unchanged from last week and about 15 cents lower than the national average.
• The states with the lowest average prices: Mississippi ($2.76), Texas ($2.79) and Louisiana ($2.79).
• The states with the highest priced states: California ($4.37), Hawaii ($4.02) and Nevada ($4.01).

In the NottinghamMD.com coverage area, the cheapest gas as of Monday was located at Costco (9919 Pulaski Highway) and at Sam’s Club (6410 Petrie Way). The price per gallon for regular gas was $2.75 at each location, down from $2.85 last week. The most expensive gas was found at the Exxon station at Honeygo Boulevard at Mercantile Road where regular gasoline costs $3.79 per gallon.

Photo by Ingo Joseph from Pexels