U.S. Average Gas Price Falls 3 Cents in 2 Weeks

The average price nationwide for all grades of gasoline fell 3 cents in two weeks, continuing a drop in pump prices that began last month, an industry analyst said Sunday.

The average retail price for all three grades dropped 3.05 cents to $2.24 a gallon from April 22 to Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.

The most popular grade, self-serve regular, was priced at $2.21 a gallon, and customers paid $2.31 for mid-grade. Premium averaged $2.41 a gallon for the period.

The drop comes after an average 4.5-cent drop in overall gas prices during the last survey, taken April 8-22. Average gasoline prices soared 49 cents a gallon from Jan. 1 to April 8, when prices began a downward trend, Lundberg said.

The highest average gas price in the nation for regular unleaded among the stations surveyed was $2.60 a gallon in San Francisco. The lowest price was $1.95 in Minneapolis.

The lowest average price among stations surveyed in California for regular unleaded was found in Sacramento, where motorists pay $2.49 a gallon. The survey includes Sacramento, Stockton, greater Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield, Fresno and San Francisco.

Lundberg said the recent relief at the pump was due to several factors, including an increased supply of both crude oil and gasoline and the completion of some maintenance projects that had reduced capacity at the nation’s refineries.

She said those factors had offset a surge in consumption that usually occurs in spring and summer.