By Charles Kim
Motorists in the Garden State felt a bit of relief at the pump this week as gasoline prices dropped statewide by about 3-cents a gallon, according to a survey by the GasBuddy online pricing service.
In a press release this week, the company found that gas prices in New Jersey fell 3.3 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.83 per gallon.
GasBuddy conducts a daily survey of 3,525 stations in New Jersey to find the average price for the state.
According to the release, this compares with the national average that has fallen 0.8 cents per gallon versus last week to $2.83 per gallon.
"With a muted response from OPEC to President (Donald) Trump's exhortation via Twitter that OPEC do something to reign in high oil prices, we may see energy markets rally as concerns grow that Iran's sanctions effective in November may pose more a challenge to global supply than anticipated," Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy said in the release. "Oil prices jumped to fresh highs last night on reaction to the chilly reception to Trump's concern, with several oil ministers downplaying the rise in oil prices. Moving forward, with Iran's oil essentially out of reach, gas prices may not see the typical decline we had been expecting as recently as the last two weeks as new concerns emerge about the tightrope balance some oil producing countries are hoping for- pushing supply down as global demand rises. That's not going to be good news for motorists."
GasBuddy started in 2000 and now serves some 75 million consumers looking for the best deal on local gas, according to the company.
Using crowdsourcing, the service allows users to get find the lowest prices for fuel in real time and also to get reviews of more than 140,000 service stations nationwide, according to the company.
Although prices went down, GasBuddy said that a gallon of gas is 21-cents higher this year compared to the same time in 2017.
During the last five years, prices have ranged from $1.98 in 2016 to a high of $3.34 in 2013, according to the company.
Consumers can visit http://FuelInsights.GasBuddy.com for the latest in real time gas pricing, according to the company.