COLUMBUS, Ohio – Drivers can find gasoline for less than $3 a gallon in central Ohio if they look around a little bit as prices at the pump saw their third straight weekly decline.
A gallon of regular gas was averaging $3.12 in Monday’s survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and WEX Inc., 14 cents cheaper than a week ago and 43 cents below what it was when the month began.
At least one price-monitoring website indicated prices were below $3 a gallon at several stations.
And motorists may not have seen the bottom yet.
Oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that falling crude oil prices drove declines across the nation, but the drop was also heavily impacted by a crash in prices of ethanol and the fact that winter-grade gasoline costs less to produce. If crude prices don’t rise, the average prices at the pump may drop a few more cents in the coming weeks.
Lundberg’s national survey says the average price dropped another 9 cents over the last two weeks, to $3.37, bringing the decline to 34 cents over the last 13 weeks.
Ohio’s statewide average price, according to the AAA, was $3.19, 12 cents lower than a week ago and 19 cents less than last month at this time.
Among Ohio’s metropolitan areas, the Toledo area has lowest average at about $3.05 per gallon.