Retail Gas Prices Slip for 2nd Week in State, Nation

Retail gasoline prices fell for a second week in California and nationwide despite recent increases in the price of crude oil, the federal government said Monday.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. fell 4.1 cents, to $1.649. In California, the price dipped 1.3 cents to $2.130 for the seven-day period ended Monday, according to the latest weekly survey from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.

Pump prices also fell for the second straight week in San Francisco, where retail costs fell a penny to $2.165 per gallon, but the city remains home to the highest-priced fuel among major U.S. cities. In Los Angeles, the average price was down nine-tenths of a penny to $2.128 per gallon.

The retail price improvements remain tenuous, however, because the price of crude oil continues to gyrate along with war news and civil unrest in Nigeria, which has curtailed oil exports.

After rocketing to just short of the $40-per-barrel mark in early March, the price of crude oil slid to below $30, and then reversed course again, rising 12% last week.

On Monday, the cost of crude rose 88 cents to $31.04 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Changes in the price of crude, the largest component in the price of gasoline, tend to have a delayed effect on retail prices.