Gas prices on Long Island continue to fall
A gallon of regular unleaded gas is $3.65 at the Hess on Old Country Road in Plainview Wednesday. (June 20, 2012) Credit: Barry Sloan
The cost of a gallon of gasoline on Long Island has now fallen nearly half a dollar since a high point in the spring.
Regular gasoline cost $3.680 per gallon on average in Nassau and Suffolk counties Wednesday, according to AAA.
That price represents a decline of 48 cents per gallon since April 10, when local prices hit their recent peak.
Some analysts think prices will slip further in coming weeks.
"I think consumers can expect to see prices fall off another 15 cents a gallon between now and July 4," said Andy Lipow, president of Houston consulting company Lipow Oil Associates Llc.
Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, a consultants and brokers company in Chicago, agreed.
Both men cite falling crude oil prices, due to the struggling economy, and strong supplies of crude oil. Flynn also cites what he thinks are long-term changes -- more fuel-efficient cars on the road and changes in drivers' habits after the price shock of 2008, when gasoline on Long Island peaked at a record $4.346 per gallon of regular.
"It's possible that the high prices we've seen this year might be highest prices we see for a number of years," Flynn said.
In trading Wednesday in New York and London, U.S. crude oil for July delivery fell $2.23 to $81.80 a barrel, which Bloomberg News said was the lowest settlement since Oct. 5.
Brent oil, a European crude used to produce much of the gasoline sold on the East Coast, fell $3.07, to $92.69 a barrel, the lowest settlement in 18 months.
Demand for gasoline nationally fell by 3.5 percent from a year earlier in the week ending June 8, according to MasterCard's latest SpendingPulse report.
