Gas prices leveling off in Sacramento area

Gas prices in the Sacramento area rose for a fourth consecutive week, but as analysts predicted, the increases slowed significantly.

The average retail price of gasoline in Sacramento is $2.58 a gallon, up half a penny from the previous week, according to national gas-price tracker GasBuddy.com. That’s 13.1 cents higher than one month ago and up 10.4 cents from a year ago.

Allison Mac, a Los Angeles-based analyst for GasBuddy, said the late-December, early-January price spikes were tied to production problems at key refineries in the state. Refineries producing the state-mandated blend of gas for use in California continue to work on maintenance issues, analysts said, and refinery use has gone up in a week’s time.

Nationally, the average price of gas fell nearly 2 cents over the past week to $1.97 a gallon.

GasBuddy predicted that tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran would do little to change things, with crude oil continuing to sell for less than $40 a barrel. GasBuddy analyst Jeff Pelton expects gas prices to decline the rest of the month.

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Gas prices leveling off in Sacramento area."