| Tennessee Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com |
Gasoline prices fell by nearly 2 cents per gallon in Chattanooga last week to $2 per gallon as a glut of oil continued to drive down oil prices.
According to GasBuddy.com survey of 170 service stations in Chattanooga, the average price of regular gas fell by 1.9 cents in Chattanooga to $2 per gallon, or 29 cents per gallon less than the U.S. average.
The drop left gas prices about where they were a month ago in Chattanooga, although they remain nearly 23 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.
GasBuddy said regular gas was selling Monday for as cheap as $1.89 per gallon at two service stations in East Brainerd and remained below $2 a gallon at dozens of Chattanooga area stations.
"A sudden plunge in the price of oil is likely to weigh on gas prices, at least temporarily," Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, said in a report on gas prices today. "Naturally, when oil prices take a beating such as they did last week, one might expect gasoline prices to move in lockstep, but due the complex relationship of oil and gasoline prices and the middleman- U.S. refineries- motorists may not see as large a decline at the pump as they may hope for- but certainly stay tuned. I remain optimistic that the annual spring rally at the pump could be less severe than expected, but remain cautious as it remains difficult to know where the new path will lead oil prices in the week ahead."
On the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday, April West Texas intermediate crude oil fell another 9 cents to $48.40 per barrel.
"U.S. oil production growth shows little sign of slowing," said Robbie Fraser, a commodity analysts at Schneider Electric. U.S. producers added eight more active oil rigs last week despite the drop in oil prices.