Average gas prices in Maine have dropped 5.8 cents over the past week, tracking falling gas prices across the country, according to GasBuddy, a national company that compiles data on gas prices and provides analysis.

On Sunday, the retail price for a gallon of gasoline in Maine was $2.65, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 1,228 Maine gas stations. That’s 5.8 cents below where it was a week ago, 13.6 cents below where it was a month ago, and 96.3 cents per gallon lower than the same day last year, according to GasBuddy.

Nationally, the average price for a gallon of gas yesterday was also $2.65, a decrease of 5.5 cents per gallon over the last week, and the lowest summertime price since 2009, according to GasBuddy.

The price decreases at the pump are a result of a sharp drop in the price of crude oil over the last several weeks, according to Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy’s senior petroleum analyst.

“While 84 percent of stations in the U.S. were selling gasoline at over $2.50 a gallon a month ago, today that number has dropped to 54 percent,” DeHaan said in a statement. “A barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil has lost some $10 in value since early June at the hands of economic concerns in China and the prospects of Iranian crude adding to the global glut of oil as demand begins to fall ahead of the cooler months.”

DeHaan predicts that as many as 20 states could have average gasoline prices below $2 per gallon by Christmas, but Maine is not likely to be one of them.


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