Sacramento-area gas prices nearly $1 below last year’s level

Sacramento-area gasoline prices, which have been falling for months, plunged below the $2.60-a-gallon threshold over the past week.

National gas price tracker GasBuddy.com said the average retail price of gasoline in the area fell another 6.8 cents in a week’s time to $2.57 a gallon.

GasBuddy, which does a daily survey of more than 700 gas outlets the area, said the current price is 93.8 cents lower than one year ago, and the average at-the-pump cost has fallen 37.2 cents in just one month.

Nationally, prices fell nearly 10 cents over the past week to an average $2.28 a gallon, down 50.6 cents from last month and a full dollar below the year-ago level.

“The dramatic decline at the pump continues to reap significant savings for the motoring public, (more than) $525 million less spent every day versus this past summer, or $375 million less than the same time last year,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy. “The slump in crude oil has wavered slightly, and we’re in the fourth quarter of the game. However, there is still a chance that crude prices (will) resume their slump again and carry the pump plunge into overtime.”

Crude oil was trading at less than $54 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Sacramento-area gas prices nearly $1 below last year’s level."