Nevada gas prices down nearly $1 a gallon from a year ago

From staff and wire reports

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015 | 12:01 p.m.

Gas prices in Nevada have taken a 53-cent dive in the last month, with the average price for a gallon of unleaded at $2.33 since the last AAA Nevada gas survey on Dec. 9. That’s down from $3.31 a gallon a year ago.

The cheapest gas was in Carson City at $2.16 a gallon and the priciest in Elko at $2.48 a gallon. The cost for a gallon averaged $2.31 in Las Vegas, $2.30 in North Las Vegas and $2.33 in Henderson.

“The dramatic slide in retail gas prices has been driven by a similar plummet in global crude oil prices since the end of the summer of 2014,” said Cynthia Harris, AAA Nevada spokesperson. “This decline in the price of oil has been a product of weak demand combined with abundant supply.”

The price of oil has dipped below $45 a barrel following the latest sign from OPEC that the group doesn’t plan to cut production.

The price of U.S. benchmark crude traded as low at $44.20 a barrel early today, the lowest since April 2009. The price has dropped since last June, when it reached $107.

Analysts at Ritterbusch and Associates are forecasting that U.S. crude will go as low as $40.25 a barrel. The analysts wrote in a note to investors today that they see “little support” for oil this week, partly because they expected a report Wednesday to show larger-than-normal increases in oil supplies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.