(KERO) — Drivers are catching a break at the gas pump as gas prices are falling across several states with the website Gas Buddy claiming that costs could drop even lower in the days and weeks ahead.
After several months of soaring costs prices appear to be falling at the gas pump. According to a Gas Buddy analysis, the national average gas price has fallen 27 days straight after peaking to a historic high in mid-June.
Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy says in the weeks ahead we could see thousands of gas stations falling back under $4 per gallon. Specifically on the Gulf Coast and southern U.S. states like Georgia, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.
"There's reason to be optimistic. Gas prices have already been falling for three straight weeks," said de Haan. "Gas prices will go lower even at those stations that are just freshly dropping under that $4 mark. And a lot of that is because the plummet in the price of oil that's recently occurred will likely take 2-3 weeks stations to fully pass along."
Last week, the price of crude oil dropped below $100 a barrel for the first time since May. According to Triple-A the national average for a regular gallon of gas has fallen to $4.68, about 30 cents cheaper than last month.
And experts say falling oil prices will continue to keep costs down for consumers. But for how long?
"We could see gas prices decline another 25 to as much as $0.50 a gallon in the weeks ahead. As long as there are no unexpected outages or disruptions that could cause oil prices to reverse and go back up," explained de Haan.
Potential disruptions include an unexpected outage, major hurricane or data showing a stronger economy than anticipated.
According to Gas Buddy the average cost of gas in California is about $6.08. In Kern County, it's averaging about $6.21 a gallon.
Gas buddy says the lowest gas price in the Bakersfield area is $5.39 at the Gas for Less gas station on East Bear Mountain Boulevard.
