The national average has fallen 9.6 cents per gallon in the last week to $3.56 a gallon, according to DaytonGasPrices.com.
Including the change in gas prices in Dayton during the past week, prices Monday were 5.4 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 29.1 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, according to DaytonGasPrices.com
“With Hurricane Sandy headed for the East Coast, there are a number of uncertainties in regards to the impact at the pump for various fuels,” said GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan. “There is very little to look back at history and compare this storm to, and so far, it remains to be seen exactly how gasoline and diesel prices will be impacted.”
The biggest refineries in the Northeast shut down or throttled back on Monday in advance of Hurricane Sandy. Phillips 66 shut down its Linden, N.J. refinery, the second-biggest in the Northeast at 285,000 barrels per day. The biggest refinery in the area, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, was nearly shut. Most other big refineries in the Northeast were running at reduced capacity.
Sandy is powerful enough to down trees and powerlines and cause widespread flooding. Businesses could also be shut for days. If so, demand for gasoline and other oil products would drop sharply.
The power outages and the shutdown of major cities “may take a toll on demand unlike anything we have seen before,” wrote Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst for Price Futures Group, in a report. “The impact on demand may not last for hours but more than likely for days.”
Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Services, said he expects the drop in demand for oil and refined products “will be about as significant as we’ve seen since Katrina made landfall” in 2005.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.