Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Gasoline prices in Montana continue to fall and are now firmly below the national average. Patrick De Haan is the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy and he provided the current numbers. 

“Average gasoline prices in Montana have fallen 6.4 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.13 per gallon today,” De Haan said. “Prices in Montana are 44.7 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and stand 27.6 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.”

According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Montana was priced at $2.99 per gallon yesterday while the most expensive was $3.29 per gallon.

“The national average price of gasoline has fallen 0.4 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.21 per gallon today,” De Haan said. “The national average is down 18.9 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 14.9 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 4.7 cents in the last week and stands at $4.18 per gallon.” 

De Haan said the national average has declined 11 straight weeks even though some states have seen prices jump and others have seen prices continue to inch lower. 

“Motorists can blame the OPEC+ meeting for causing oil to jump early last week and then plummet late last week for the volatility in gas prices," De Haan said. "The good news is that as the dust settled, OPEC+ agreed to barely move the needle, deepening their production cuts by an additional 900,000 barrels per day in 2024, with Saudi Arabia extending their own million barrel per day cut through March. However, that wasn't enough to offset concerns of falling global demand, which pushed oil back down to below $73 in Sunday night trading, giving hope that the national average still could fall to $2.99 per gallon by the end of the year." 

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli

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