South Carolina – GasBuddy‘s most recent data shows that gas prices in South Carolina have dropped significantly. In the past week, they have gone down by 11 cents to an average of $2.72 per gallon. This drop is part of a larger national trend that has dropped U.S. gas prices to their lowest level for the Fourth of July holiday since 2020.
The information comes from a survey of more than 3,000 gas stations in South Carolina. It reveals that prices are a little higher now—about 1.6 cents—than they were a month ago, but they are still a lot lower than they were at this time last year. Drivers across the state are now spending over 48 cents less per gallon than they did last July.
“Nearly every state saw average gas prices decline for the second straight week, even as the nation celebrated July 4 with the lowest national average for Independence Day since 2020,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
The cost of gas in South Carolina can be very different from one place to the next. The lowest price over the weekend was $2.41 a gallon, and the highest was $3.54. That’s a difference of $1.13 depending on location.
The same thing is happening across the country. Last week, the national average dropped 5.3 cents to $3.09 per gallon. Even though the decline from month to month has been small—just over a cent—national prices are still roughly 37 cents lower than they were a year ago. GasBuddy looked at more than 11 million reports from 150,000 stations around the US to come up with these numbers.
De Haan thinks that gas prices could keep going down in the future, as long as the U.S. doesn’t have any major problems like storms or rising tensions in the Middle East.
“If tensions in the Middle East remain contained and the Gulf is spared from major hurricanes, the odds are improving that the national average could dip below $3 per gallon later this summer, but in the meantime we could see the national average falling to its lowest summer level since the pandemic,” said De Haan.
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The recent drop is a welcome break for South Carolina drivers who remain concerned about inflation and the everyday costs. As long as things stay the same on the outside, the state and national averages might keep going down. This would make summer travel easier and cheaper.