LI gas price average slides below $4 a gallon

Regular gasoline slipped below $4 a gallon on Long Island over the weekend for the first time since late February, the AAA said, as crude oil prices continued to sink on strong supplies and bad economic news from Europe.

Gasoline averaged $3.995 a gallon in Nassau and Suffolk Monday morning, although mid- and premium grades required by some cars remained over $4, as did diesel fuel.

The new average was 5.2 cents lower than a week earlier and 27.5 cents a gallon below a year earlier, less than two weeks before Memorial Day weekend, the start of the summer vacation season.

Last week the federal government forecast that regular gasoline would average $3.79 a gallon nationally from April through September, eight cents higher than last summer's average.

Prices locally have been falling since their recent peak on April 10 of $4.169 a gallon. Last year, the Long Island average for regular peaked for the summer driving season on May 12 -- at $4.284 for regular -- then fell to $3.541 on Dec. 26 before starting to climb again.

The record Long Island average for regular in the survey is $4.346 a gallon, set July 8, 2008.

Crude oil prices have been falling on strong supplies, a lessening of East-West tensions over Iran's nuclear program and, most recently, renewed concern that the European debt crisis will lead to significantly reduced demand for energy there.