Mo. maintains No. 1 rank as least expensive state to buy gas

With an average of $2.36 per gallon this morning, Missouri maintained its top spot on GasBuddy.com’s list of the lowest gas averages by state for the second week in a row.

Missouri’s gas average dropped 6 cents for the week ended Dec. 7 and another 4 cents this morning. As of 11 a.m., Missouri’s gas average was 43.4 cents lower than a month ago and 56.4 cents lower than a year ago. The national average - down 6.7 cents to $2.69 per gallon yesterday - has decreased 25.4 cents during the past month and 57.2 cents the past year, according to a news release.

“We continue to see significant price drops in all 50 states. So large are the declines and so low the prices that Americans are now saving over a quarter-billion dollars daily versus prices a year ago,” GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan said in the release.

At $2.39 per gallon, neighboring Oklahoma was second behind Missouri this morning, and Hawaii bottomed out the list with its average of $3.78 per gallon.

In Missouri, gas could be purchased at a low price of $2.06 per gallon at a filling station in Seymour, according to GasBuddy’s MissouriGasPrices.com.

Springfieldians could purchase gas for as low as $2.20 per gallon at both Sam’s Club stores. The 1260 E. St. Louis St. Dillons store priced gas at $2.22 per gallon, and elsewhere in the city, prices ranged from $2.23-$2.28 per gallon.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped to $63.32 per barrel this morning, compared to $63.72 per barrel a week ago. Light sweet crude oil futures for January were trading at $63.31 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.