Gasoline prices in San Diego county lowest in almost 3 years

In what can seem like the only good news in a wash of unsettling events, the average cost of self-serve regular gasoline fell today to its lowest price since way back on December 27, 2011. President Obama was still in his first term, gearing up for the election campaign of 2012 and gas cost $3.57 in San Diego County. After a drop of 1.9 cents, that’s what gas costs today.

Today is thus the 14th day in a row that has seen a lessening of gasoline prices. Gas costs have gone down 24.3 cents in the past 41 days. Today’s 1.9 cent drop is the largest fall in prices since November 9 of 2012. Today’s average price in San Diego is 22.8 cents less than last October 16, 19.1 cents less than September 16 and 8.3 cents lower than October 9, one week ago.

The cost of a gallon of gas at your local gas station is controlled by the wholesale price of gas, which has been falling continuously for some time now, and may be being driven down by the approach of the November 1 annual move to winter blend gasoline. This causes refineries to have a greater urgency to sell out their stock of summer blend, and as with any commodity, prices come down.

Another factor in the lowering costs is lower demand due to less driving, and more fuel-efficient cars, including the increasing number of hybrids and all-electric plug-ins. Added to that is the fact that the price of crude oil has dropped to its lowest amount since 2010.

What is puzzling analysts, investors, and pundits is that world oil prices have dipped aggressively even though there has been unrest and even war  in many of the areas where much of the oil is produced. Nations such as Syria and Iraq, embroiled in the ISIS chaos; Libya and the political upheaval there; and Nigeria with its awful kidnapping and human trafficking tragedies have not made a dent in either oil production or the decline of prices.

This is being explained by the combination of a six-year, 70% increase in production in the United States, especially from shale resources, a slow down in the economies (and therefore need for oil) in China and the European Union, and the lack of any production decreases among the OPEC nations.