Gas at a few LI stations drops below $3 a gallon

Long Island gasoline prices have slipped to their lowest level in almost four years, and at a few stations, cash prices are below $3 a gallon.

Regular slid to an average cash price of $3.316 a gallon Wednesday morning in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, the AAA said, as crude oil prices have fallen below $80 and cheaper winter gasoline has been phased in. That average was the lowest since Dec. 23, 2010.

The website Gasbuddy.com, which is based on motorist reports, Wednesday listed four stations posting $2.99 for regular -- in some cases for cash purchases only. Newsday photographed two, a BP on Sunrise Highway in Holbrook and a Gulf at the Long Island Expressway and Route 112 in Medford. At a third, Andre Hardy, owner of Montauk Native Gasoline in Mastic, confirmed a $2.99 price by telephone for the generic gas sold there. The fourth, open to members only, was the BJ's station in Freeport. A phone call to BJ's late Wednesday wasn't answered.

The benchmark grade of U.S. crude oil has retreated from a recent high of $107.95 a barrel June 20 to a close of $78.86 Wednesday on a glut from record U.S. production and slowing international economies.

At least one analyst doubts that crude oil or gasoline prices will fall much further. Tom Finlon, the director of Energy Analytics Group Ltd., a hedge fund adviser in Jupiter, Florida, predicts the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will cut output when ministers meet Nov. 24, to prevent a further collapse. "If they don't, crude prices will really plummet," he said.

Wednesday's Long Island average for regular is 23.6 cents lower than a year earlier and represents a decline of 72 cents a gallon from the recent high of $4.036 a gallon on July 2.

The federal government says the average American household used 729 gallons of gas last year, at an average total cost of $2,611.

The savings to consumers from falling prices will likely pump billions of dollars into the economy, said Port Washington-based Irwin Kellner, chief economist for MarketWatch.com, a financial-information website. "It comes at a very opportune time because this is the holiday shopping season and people's attitudes are very important," he said. "Gasoline is something you don't buy every day but something you see every day as you drive past stations."

Long Islanders who heat with oil could see further savings. Heating oil at full service retailers locally averaged $3.69 a gallon on Monday, 8 percent lower than a year earlier and the lowest during a heating season since January of 2011.