Gasoline falls to $3.7529 a gallon nationwide

The survey covers the period ended Oct. 19 and is based on information obtained from about 2,500 stations by the Camarillo, California-based company. The average is up 28.58 cents from a year earlier. Gasoline is about 21 cents below the year-to-date high of $3.9671 on April 6.

“The drop we’ve just seen reflects crude-oil price declines during the same time gasoline prices were changing so little,” Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey, said today in a telephone interview. “Crude oil’s drop last month allowed the declines to reach the pump in these two weeks.”

Crude oil declined 4.4 percent to $92.19 a barrel in September on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gasoline futures on the Nymex fell 25.62 cents, or 8.7 percent, in the past two weeks to $2.6963 a gallon, the lowest level since July 2. Prices have tumbled 19 percent this month on speculation that inventories will increase as refiners return units to service. A series of unplanned outages and seasonal maintenance roiled spot markets and retail prices in California to record levels.

Gasoline stockpiles rose 1.72 million barrels last week to 197.1 million, after falling 10 of the prior 11 weeks, according to Energy Department data.

During the two weeks ended Oct. 5, West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was little changed, up 17 cents to $90.05 a barrel.

Crude inventories rose 2.86 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 19 to 369.2 million, according to department data.

Regular gasoline on Long Island averaged about $4.03 a gallon, down 9 cents since Oct. 5, Lundberg said. Los Angeles- area retail stations averaged $4.50, down 5 cents.

The highest price in the lower 48 U.S. states among the markets surveyed was in San Francisco, where the average was $4.51 a gallon, Lundberg said. The lowest price was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where customers paid an average of $3.26 a gallon.