Oklahoma seeing gasoline prices below $3 again

Oklahoma City resident Gavin Samuels also was pleased with the price drop, but he's not getting too excited about it.

“It's going down now, but it'll just go right back up,” he said.

The statewide average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline settled at $3.27 on Friday, down more than 46 cents over the past month, according to AAA's FuelGaugeReport.com. The price sets Oklahoma with the third-lowest statewide average, just behind Ohio and Missouri.

In Oklahoma City, the price was $3.22 a gallon, down more than 50 cents over the past month. The average price in Tulsa is $3.11, off 53 cents over the past 30 days.

Data from GasBuddy.com showed a similar trend, but even better news for Oklahoma consumers. Motorists have been paying prices below $3 in parts of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Lowest in nation

According to the gas price website, Oklahoma has the lowest price in the country at almost $3.19 a gallon.

Individual station prices in Oklahoma City range from $2.95 to $3.75 a gallon according to GasBuddy and its OklahomaCityGasPrices.com.

The price is following a traditional seasonal pattern by dropping in the fall, said Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy in Tampa, Fla.

“Once you get into October, refiners are able to start producing winter blended gasoline, which has fewer additives and is cheaper to produce,” he said. “That is occurring at a time when typically consumer demand tends to be pretty unremarkable.”

While 96 percent of the country's gas stations have lower gasoline prices than they did one week ago, only about 6 percent of are selling gasoline for less than $3.25 a gallon, and only 23 percent of the country's stations are lower than where they were one year ago, according to GasBuddy data.

In Oklahoma, most stations met all three of those marks, Laskoski said.