Gas prices on LI back under $4 and falling
Jorge Montoya of Amityville fills up his gas tank at a Valero station in North Amityville. (June 15, 2011) Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
The waffling economy has sent prices for regular gasoline on Long Island below $4 a gallon for the first time since April -- down more than 3 cents in a week. And a sharp drop in crude oil prices Wednesday suggested even more relief at the pumps, observers said.
Regular gas in Nassau and Suffolk has fallen 29 cents in the past four weeks, but Wednesday it was at $3.992 a gallon -- still $1.04 more than a year earlier. That's nearly 30 cents below its recent peak in May, the AAA said.
On May 12 a gallon of regular on Long Island averaged $4.284, just 6.2 cents shy of the record $4.346 set July 8, 2008. Prior to May 12, the average had been rising from a Sept. 7 low of $2.829 a gallon. Nationally, a gallon of regular averaged $3.689 yesterday, according to AAA.
Crude oil, which accounts for about 60 percent of the price of gasoline and traded as high in recent months as $114 a barrel for the U.S. benchmark grade, had fallen to about $100. On Wednesday, it fell by $4.56 on the New York Mercantile Exchange to $94.81 a barrel -- which Reuters said was the lowest close since Feb. 22.
"I think with crude oil closer to $95 than $100 you might see some more relief at the pumps," said senior oil analyst Linda Rafield, based in Manhattan for the energy information provider Platts.
Oil prices are being pulled downward, she said, by mixed economic news, including a rise reported yesterday in U.S. core inflation, and by a strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which tends to make commodities such as oil that are priced in dollars less of a bargain.
The euro is weakening on the intensifying Greek financial crisis.
Oil analyst Peter Beutel, principal of Cameron Hanover Inc. in Connecticut, told clients in a report Tuesday, "More and more signs are out there every day that businesses are bracing for difficult times ahead."
As pump prices have fallen, driving has picked up again. MasterCard Advisors said Tuesday that American drivers purchased slightly more gasoline last week than a year earlier.
Home heating oil, still being used by many Long Islanders to produce hot water, rose by 5.3 cents a gallon in the week ended Tuesday, to $4.094 at full service dealers on Long Island, the state Energy Research and Development Authority reported.
