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Tampa Area Gas Prices Drop 35% In A Month

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By RUSSELL RAY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2008

TAMPA - Motorists in the Tampa Bay area are paying a lot less for gasoline as growing supplies and weak demand push prices closer to $2 a gallon.

In one month, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded in the Tampa Bay area has plunged 35 percent, or $1.18, to $2.23, AAA reported today. A year ago, local retailers were charging $3.09 a gallon on average for the same grade of fuel.

"What we've seen is really very remarkable," said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club South. "For the month of October, we saw gasoline prices come down by 5 or 6 cents a day consistently."

Local gasoline prices are still dropping, but at slower pace, from 2 cents to 3 cents a gallon each day, Laskoski said.

"The daily movement is usually measured by tenths of a cent," Laskoski said. "That's what makes October and November so extraordinary."

Laskoski said pump prices will continue to fall through December and that $2 gasoline may be on the horizon.

U.S. gasoline supplies grew by more than 1 million barrels last week to 196.1 million, according to the Department of Energy. What's more, the lower prices haven't led consumers to buy more fuel. The sour economy has been an effective deterrent.

"We're still well below what we were consuming last year at this time," he said. "If they stop and looked at their 401(k), that's all the incentive they need to save money."

In many parts of the county, gasoline prices already have dipped below $2 a gallon, AAA's daily survey shows.

In Kansas City, motorists are paying on average $1.82 for a gallon of regular unleaded. Prices in Cincinnati and Indianapolis are averaging $1.90 and $1.91 respectively.

In the Tampa Bay area, retailers were charging between $2.05 and $2.37 a gallon for regular fuel, according to gasbuddy.com, which uses volunteers to track the lowest and highest pump prices in markets nationwide.

The lower prices stem primarily from a sharp decline in the cost of crude oil, the feedstock for nearly all transportation fuels. Since July 11, when oil reached a high of $147.27 a barrel, oil has plunged 56 percent to about $64 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870.

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