Gasoline Drops Below $1 a Gallon : Energy: Prices at many Southland stations are down to last spring’s low. And many market experts expect them to remain there, or even drop more.

For the first time since Iraq invaded Kuwait last August, service stations in Southern California are posting gasoline prices below $1 a gallon, cheering--and surprising--consumers and economists alike.

According to the authoritative Lundberg Letter, of the almost 1,600 service stations most recently surveyed in Greater Los Angeles, 111 were selling regular leaded gasoline at self-service pumps for under $1. That included “a smattering” of major-brand stations, as well as independents, Publisher Trilby Lundberg said.

In the latest survey, the average price of self-serve regular unleaded gas in Southern California was $1.146, the lowest price since late last spring. Some stations offer prices as much as 10 cents below the average.

Prices are falling nationwide, although they are lower in Southern California than in other regions.

In its latest survey of prices, the American Automobile Assn. reported Tuesday that the nationwide average price of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline fell 4.2 cents in the last week, to $1.183, the lowest since Aug. 3, the day after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

And with the current surplus of oil, many petroleum-market experts expected gasoline prices to remain low, or even drop more--an especially welcome turn, with the economy mired in a slump.

“It is great medicine for an economy in recession,” said Philip K. Verleger Jr., an economist who specializes in energy at the Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank.

While some experts cautioned that lower prices could spur consumption, increasing both U.S. dependence on foreign energy resources and air pollution, others saw only good news in the price drop.

“I really think it’s better to have lower prices than we had later last year, because energy is a big cost in our economy,” said Ray Gibson, senior associate for Carl H. Pforzheimer & Co., a New York-based brokerage firm that specializes in oil.

“It’s not only people running back and forth to work,” Gibson said, “but it goes into the cost of everything you move by truck and rail. It’s a big item. And I think gasoline marketers (themselves) generally prefer stable and reasonable prices. . . . They really can be zapped by price volatility.”

Consumers interviewed Tuesday thought it only appropriate that prices were falling.

“I don’t know why the prices went up in the first place,” said Los Angeles resident Robert Randall as he pumped gasoline at an Atlantic Richfield station in the Westlake section of Los Angeles. “We have plenty of gas in this country. There’s no shortage.”

Randall said he drives only when necessary and--despite the drop in price--would not consume more gas. Regular leaded gas was 99 cents a gallon at the station where he filled up.

For the moment, the spigot is open, even as demand for oil has slackened worldwide.