COLUMBUS – Gas prices in central Ohio plunged below the $2-a-gallon line Monday morning with stations posting prices in the low $1.80’s in Gahanna and the Northeast Side.
The average price in Licking County Monday morning was $1.98 a gallon, the only one of Ohio’s 88 counties where the price countywide averaged less than $2, according to a daily survey by the AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and WEX, Inc.
The average retail price of a gallon regular gas in central Ohio Monday morning was $2.05, 45 cents cheaper than at the beginning of November as motorists nationwide enjoy a drop in prices at the pump, driven by falling crude oil costs.
“Cheap crude oil prices are driving fuel savings at the pump. Last week, crude dropped to its lowest point of the year at $50 a barrel,” said Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokesperson for the auto club AAA.
Casselano warns OPEC may put the brakes on the dropping price of oil when it makes an announcement on crude production at its December 6 meeting in Vienna.
“This week’s Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting could cause crude oil prices to jump if the organization decides to reduce crude production,” she said.
Not only is today’s national gas price average cheaper year-over-year, but also is 31 cents cheaper than a month ago and on the week.
Twenty-four states, including Ohio, saw gas prices drop double digits compared to last year. Following a 15-cents decline – the largest weekly drop in the U.S — the statewide average price in Ohio was 19 cents less than a year ago.