DAYTON, Ohio -- Gasoline prices fell below $3 a gallon at several area service stations on Wednesday, but the drop is momentary, a gasoline market analyst said.
"This is the typical see-saw that we've seen," said Patrick DeHaan, a petroleum analyst with the GasBuddy chain of websites that let consumers track and report local gas prices.
Regular-grade gas sold Wednesday for $2.98 or $2.99 a gallon at eight area stations as of early Wednesday evening, according to GasBuddy's DaytonGasPrices.com.
Gas sold elsewhere in the area for between $3.01 and $3.35 a gallon. The area's average price was $3.15 a gallon, according to the website.
DeHaan sees two factors at work. One is President's Obama's recent decision not to approve a permit for the TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. Another factor was a new U.S. Department of Energy report finding that petroleum inventories on the East Coast and the Midwest are high.
Wholesale prices started to slide in response to both pieces of news, particularly the Energy inventory report, DeHaan said.
But the relatively lower prices won't last too much longer, he warned. Already on Wednesday, wholesale prices were bouncing up five cents, DeHaan said, although he did not think the Dayton area would see any increases until the weekend or shortly after.
GasBuddy's 2012 price outlook predicts rapidly rising national averages approaching $4.15 a gallon in May before prices slowly fall again.
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