Gasoline Prices Keep Falling

Just in time for the Memorial Day Weekend, when prices traditionally go up, the average gasoline price nationwide for all grades tumbled just over 6 cents in two weeks, continuing a slide in pump prices that began last month, an industry analyst said Sunday.

"Self-serve regular now costs $2.15, and all three grades combined costs $2.18, down 6.4" cents, Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the biweekly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country, told CBS Radio News.

The most popular grade, self-serve regular, was priced at $2.15 a gallon, while customers paid $2.25 for midgrade. Premium averaged $2.35 a gallon for the period.

"Most crude oil supplies and gasoline supplies are up, since the all-time record price for gasoline," Lundberg said. "Gasoline prices have fallen about 14 cents per gallon. That's about the same amount that crude oil prices are down."

Average gasoline prices spiked 49 cents per gallon between Jan. 1 and April 8. Oil prices began skyrocketing in March, hitting a peak of $57.27 a barrel at the beginning of April. Prices have since receded and now hover above $47 a barrel.

Now, "we have more crude oil supplies, which helps gasoline prices go down, and several projects, pre-spring, have been completed, which brings back refinery capacity and enhances gasoline supplies," Lundberg said.

The outlook for motorists is good.

"Probably gasoline prices will slip further, maybe another nickel," Lundberg said.

How much you pay now depends on where you live.

"The lowest average self-serve regular price in our survey is in Jackson, Miss., $1.94, and the highest in the survey is San Francisco, at $2.51," Lundberg said.