Missouri’s gas average falls to second lowest in nation

Missouri’s gas average dropped 5.6 cents during the past week, making the state the second-least expensive in the nation to buy fuel.

At $1.86 per gallon this morning, Missouri was only behind Oklahoma’s $1.83 per gallon average. Hawaii was at the bottom of GasBuddy.com’s list with a $2.91 per gallon average.

The national average decreased 4.9 cents during the past week to $2.15 per gallon yesterday. Missouri’s average is 20.3 cents lower than a month ago and 9.7 cents below the same time last year. The U.S. average has decreased 8.8 cents during the past month and 1.4 cents during the past year, according to a news release.

"While it's less than a week after the biggest upset in U.S. election history, energy industry experts are already speculating on what steps a Trump administration might enact first - whether the earliest initiatives might eliminate regulations or perhaps look to increase domestic oil and gas production," said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, in the release. "Over the next few weeks expect prices at the pump to move lower based on market fundamentals, not politics. Inventories remain healthy.”

In Springfield this morning, consumers could purchase gas for as low as $1.71 per gallon at the Cenex station at 820 E. Battlefield Road. Prices elsewhere in the Queen City ranged from $1.72 to $1.79 per gallon.

In Missouri, a station in Arnold and two in Lake St. Louis had the cheapest gas available statewide at $1.62 per gallon. The highest price was $2.89 per gallon at a filling station in Ladue, according to GasBuddy’s MissouriGasPrices.com.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading at $42.25 per barrel as of 11:10 a.m., compared with a 52-week range of $34.06 to $53.62.