Average U.S. gasoline is below $2.50 for first time since 2009

NEW YORK – U.S. drivers are paying less than $2.50 a gallon at the pump for the first time in more than five years.

Retail gasoline prices slipped to an average $2.477 a gallon last night, data from the Heathrow, Florida-based motoring group AAA showed. That’s down from this year’s peak of $3.696 in April, and the first time the average has dipped below $2.50 since October 2009.

The AAA projects prices will drop to between $2.25 and $2.40 a gallon by New Year’s Day, making for the cheapest holiday gasoline since 2008, Michael Green, a Washington-based spokesman for the motoring group, said in an e-mail.

Tumbling crude prices and rising refinery activity have sent pump prices tumbling. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries declined to reduce its output quota at a meeting last month, letting prices drop to a level that may slow U.S. production that’s surged to the highest level in more than three decades. U.S. refineries operated at the highest level in more than nine years earlier this month, government data shows.

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Benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures touched $53.60 a barrel on Dec. 16, the lowest level since May 2009. The contract rose $1.09, or 1.9 percent, to $57.56 at 8:53 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent dropped to $58.50 on Dec. 16, also the least since May 2009.

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