patrick.net

California gasoline prices backing down slightly this week

LOS ANGELES
September 15, 2017 4:43am

• Still over $3 in most of the state
• “Plenty of room for retail prices to start dropping more rapidly in coming days”

California gasoline prices may have peaked and are starting to drop in most parts of the state as fuel supply concerns caused by Hurricane Harvey have eased, according to price surveys Friday. “Los Angeles wholesale gasoline prices shot up by 34 cents from August 24 to August 31 due to Harvey-related supply concerns, but since then have dropped by 22 cents, leaving plenty of room for retail prices to start dropping more rapidly in coming days,” says Jeffrey Spring, a spokesman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. California’s statewide average price on Friday, September 15, is $3.153, up four-tenths of a cent from one week ago, according to AAA. The national average is $2.642, down 3.2 cents since last Friday, according to the AAA. Prices still average over the $3 mark in seven of the ten Central Valley markets checked weekly by CVBT.

Today’s Regional Prices

Following are the Central Valley average prices for Friday, September 15, driving from south to north, as reported by the American Automobile Association, with last week’s (September 8) averages in parentheses and [September 1] prices in brackets:

• Bakersfield, $3.111 ($3.087) [$2.970]
• Visalia-Porterville, $3.115 ($3.117) [$3.010]
• Fresno, $3.148 ($3.139) [$3.017]
• Merced, $3.133 ($3.127) [$2.972]
• Modesto, $2.999 ($2.973) [$2.852]
• Stockton-Lodi, $3.045 ($3.027) [$2.905]
• Sacramento, $3.063 ($3.052) [$2.934]
• Yolo, $3.029 ($3.005) [$2.894]
• Yuba City, $2.959 ($2.939) [$2.826]
• Chico, $2.942 ($2.941) [$2.849]

The market average price for self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area on September 15 is $3.190, down a whopping one-tenth of a cent since last Friday. In San Diego, the average price is $3.148, down one cent over the past seven days, the AAA says.
California’s highest average price on September 15 is in San Luis Obispo at $3.305 per gallon. That's six-tenths of a cent higher than last week's average for SLO, the AAA says, Again this week, Yuba City has the state’s lowest market average price. This week’s average of $2.959 is two cents higher than one week ago, the AAA says. California’s lowest reported price for a gallon of gas on September 15 is $2.579, which is the same as the lowest found a week ago, but this week just at a convenience store in Tulare, according to the price comparison website GasBuddy.com. What could be the lowest price in the country for a gallon of gas on September 15 is found at a truck stop in Katy, Texas, where just $1.889 buys a gallon of gas. That's 11 cents less than last week's lowest, which was found in Oklahoma, according to GasBuddy.com.

Methodologies
GasBuddy bases its figures on reports from volunteer “price spotters” reporting specific locations in the U.S. and Canada. They are not independently confirmed. The AAA’s prices are market averages for self-serve regular grade (87 octane) gasoline. They are calculated daily from credit card purchases and compiled by the Oil Price Information Service and Wex Inc., formerly known as Wright Express.
Not every station is surveyed and not every market is included in either report. Both price surveys note that there can be wide variations within any market.