Lundberg Survey publisher Trilby Lundberg said there were two
primary causes for the 3.44-cent drop: demand for gas has
dropped, as it does every year in the fall, and the price of
crude oil declined slightly.
A lesser cause for the drop was the annual change in federal
anti-smog rules that dictate the maximum vapor pressure
allowed for gasoline. During the fall and winter months,
refiners are allowed to produce gas that vaporizes at lower
temperatures. That reformulated gas is cheaper to produce.
The psychological impact of U.S. President Bill Clinton's
announcement on September 22 that he was tapping into the
nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve was a factor in the drop
in the price of crude oil, from which gasoline is refined,
Lundberg said.
High heating oil prices
High prices for heating oil are an incentive for refiners to
divert petroleum supplies to the production of more heating
oil, at the expense of gasoline supplies, Lundberg said.
"It's not known whether higher prices in Europe for home
heating oil might be attracting volumes of (U.S. fuel)
offshore," she said.
The price of a gallon of gas was cheapest in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
where it cost $1.36, down a dime during the two weeks between
September 22 and October 6.
San Francisco most expensive
The nation's most expensive city in which to fill up your
tank was San Francisco, California, where a gallon of self-
serve regular gasoline cost $1.95, down a penny from what it
had been September 22.
Here are some other gasoline prices:
Portland, Maine: $1.54, down 3 cents
Chicago, Illinois: $1.54, down 5 cents
Boston, Massachusetts: $1.64, down 1 cent
Los Angeles, California: $1.72, up 3 cents
Atlanta, Georgia: $1.40, down 2 cents
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