For the sixth straight week gasoline prices trickled lower across the Southland, according to the latest Automobile Club of Southern California’s weekend gas watch.
The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles Long Beach area is $3.215, which is 5.2 cents lower than last week, 17 cents lower than last month and 82 cents higher than last year. The average price of diesel gasoline reached $3.296, off the record high of $3.461 reached on May 6. The Auto Club survey monitors the average price of gasoline each Friday.
“This week, the Energy Department reports healthy increases in gasoline inventory, but demand for gas is one percent higher than the same period last year,” said Auto Club spokesperson Carol Thorp. “There is such a thin margin between supply inventories and demand that energy traders could send prices higher again on any troubling news this summer, such as threats of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.”
To lessen those potential impacts, motorists should continue conserving fuel as they have for the past couple of months, Thorp said.
On the Central Coast, the average price is $3.390, down 3.3 cents from last week, nine cents below last month and 89 cents higher than last year. In the Inland Empire, the average price is $3.235, down 5.8 cents from last week, 19 cents below last month and 85 cents higher than last year. In San Diego, the price is $3.220, 5.6 cents below last week’s price, 21 cents below last month and 81 cents above last year.
