Sacramento-area gas prices falling fast, joining national trend

Joining the rest of the nation in a price plunge, Sacramento-area gas prices fell another 8.6 cents per gallon over the past week, according to national fuel tracker GasBuddy.com.

The average retail price in the area is $2.41 a gallon, down more than 16 cents over the past two weeks. The rapid fall comes on the heels of four weeks of relatively modest price increases from early December to early January, a development GasBuddy blamed on in-state refinery disruptions and a corresponding drop in fuel imports.

The local at-the-pump average is 11 cents lower than it was a month ago but 6.4 cents higher than at this time last year.

Meanwhile, robust fuel supplies and plunging crude oil prices continue to drive down the national average, now $1.82 a gallon, down 17.5 cents in one month and 20 cents below the year-ago level.

“Crude oil futures have lost 18 percent of value since the end of 2015 and have cleared the way for the retail gasoline price decline,” said Will Speer, a GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst. “Gasoline inventories sitting at 245 million barrels are the highest the U.S. has seen since March 1990.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Sacramento-area gas prices falling fast, joining national trend."