Gas price decline continues in Carson City

The great gasoline price implosion of 2014-15 keeps coming here, across Nevada and elsewhere, but an analyst questions its longevity.

GasBuddy.com listed 15 Carson City gas stations Tuesday afternoon featuring regular unleaded at under $2 a gallon, a price trend led at the time local prices were checked by the 7-Eleven gas station and mini-mart at 3701 N. Carson St.

That station on the northeast corner of Carson Street and College Parkway was listed as charging $1.95 a gallon.

The website earlier in the day also said Nevada’s average retail gas prices had fallen 7.9 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.24 a gallon on the Monday holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The statewide average was compiled based on a daily survey of 1,130 outlets in the state.

“This compares with the national average that has fallen 5.8 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.05 per gallon,” the website reported.

Taking into account the nationwide drop in the past week, GasBuddy.com reported, prices on Monday were 105.6 cents per gallon below the level of the same day in 2014 and 39 cents below the level of just a month earlier.

The low, however, may be in sight.

“The light at the end of the tunnel is dimming as gasoline prices have nearly caught up with the drop in crude oil prices,” said Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst. DeHaan said crude prices rallied once last week, then caved again but recovered on Friday, which he called “a sign that perhaps we’ve seen a bottom in oil prices, and perhaps thus a bottom in gasoline prices as well.”

Only Hawaii had an average price exceeding $3 per gallon at $3.32 while California retains the dubious honor of the highest gas price in the contiguous 48 states, coming in at just under $2.50 a gallon. Missouri once again was lowest at $1.75 and was one of 26 states averaging under $2 per gallon.