Average gasoline prices slipped by 9.6 cents form last week as refineries are producing more, the Energy Department said in its weekly fuel report.
On Monday, the average price of regular gasoline in California slipped to $4.164 a gallon, from $4.260 a gallon a week earlier.
The decline was mainly due to more production. Refineries produced 6.96 million barrels, up 8.8 per cent from a year earlier.
It is the fourth consecutive week when motorist in California are enjoying a drop in prices of fuel. The most recently recorded price of gasoline is 21.2 cents down from the high of $4.376 a gallon, which was recorded in March 12. However, the recent price is still 22.4 cents higher than a year earlier.
The Energy Department's Weekly Fuels Watch Report also revealed that declines in prices of gasoline across the rest of the United States have slowed over the past weeks.
Senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan, of GasBuddy. com, said, “While price decreases have heated up on the West Coast, decreases are drying up in other areas such as the Great Lakes.”
The national average price for regular gasoline was recorded at $3.572a gallon, down just 4 cents from the previous week. The highest national average was recorded at $3.941 a gallon, set on April 2, so far this year.