Lake Elsinore-Wildomar Gasoline Price Drops to Lowest Amount Since April 28

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in the Inland Empire dropped Wednesday to its lowest amount since April 28, decreasing a half-cent to $3.445.

The average price in Riverside and San Bernardino counties has dropped for 19 consecutive days and 45 of the past 47, decreasing 75.3 cents, including 2.1 cents on Tuesday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.

The decreases follow a nine-day streak of increases totaling 72.1 cents that pushed the average price to its highest amount since May 12, 2014.

The average price dropped for 26 consecutive days, rose a total of 5.8 cents from Aug. 13-14, then resumed declining on Aug. 15.

The average price is 13.7 cents less than one week ago, 53.8 cents lower than one month ago and 34.8 cents below what it was one year ago.

“Gas prices are going down because we have comfortable supply,” said Allison Mac, a West Coast petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which bills itself as the nation’s leading provider of retail fuel pricing information and data.

“Although the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance is still not producing at maximum capacity, we are getting imports which is helping with inventory. We have to keep in mind that the margin of error is still really small for California. Any small blip or refinery issue can send prices shooting up.”

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock