Gilroy
– Gas prices in Gilroy remain well above national averages,
which dipped slightly in recent weeks following another round of
spikes last month.
Gilroy – Gas prices in Gilroy remain well above national averages, which dipped slightly in recent weeks following another round of spikes last month.
The lowest prices in Gilroy are found at Costco, which on Wednesday was offering members $2.38 a gallon for self-serve regular. The next lowest price of $2.43 per gallon could be found at Rotten Robbie off Leavesley Road and the Valero station at the corner of First Street and Westwood Drive.
An employee at Chevron on Leavesley Road, an independently owned franchise where regular unleaded sold for $2.59 on Tuesday, said their prices are a function of the cost of purchasing gas from Chevron Corporation as well as the rates charged by surrounding gas stations. Of the half dozen stations along Leavesley, Chevron’s price was the highest.
Hai Ngyen, manager of Valero at the corner of First and Wayland Street, said his price of $2.51 is “still very high” compared to past months.
“The prices went up in April and stayed pretty much there since,” he said. “The prices are set by Valero.”
The average price nationwide for all grades of gasoline fell 3 cents in two weeks, continuing a drop in pump prices that began last month, an industry analyst said Sunday.
The average retail price nationwide for all three grades dropped 3.05 cents to $2.24 per gallon between April 22 and May 6, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.
The most popular grade nationwide , self-serve regular, was priced at $2.21 a gallon, while customers paid $2.31 for midgrade. Premium averaged $2.41 a gallon for the period.
The drop comes after an average 4.5-cent drop in overall prices during the last survey, taken between April 8 and April 22. Average prices soared 49 cents per gallon between Jan. 1 and April 8, Lundberg said.
She said the recent relief at the pump was due to several factors, including an increased supply of crude oil and gasoline and the completion of maintenance projects that had reduced capacity at refineries. She said those had offset a spike in consumption that usually occurs in spring and summer.
“If crude oil supplies and gasoline supplies continue on the up-and-up, then pump prices are likely to continue down at least for the short term,” Lundberg said. “Crude oil is still hovering around $50 a barrel and that’s still a super incentive for producers to maximize their output.”
The highest average price in the nation for regular unleaded among the stations surveyed was $2.60 a gallon in San Francisco. The lowest was $1.95 in Minneapolis.
The lowest average price among stations surveyed in California was in Sacramento, where motorists pay $2.49 a gallon. The survey includes Sacramento, Stockton, greater Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield, Fresno and San Francisco.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
