An oil industry group today says Ohio has the lowest retail price of gasoline in the country. A gas war among several stations in London, 30 miles west of Columbus, drove pump prices below $2 per gallon.
At that price, industry analyst Patrick DeHaan, says individual stations are losing money.
"This is completely at the station level. Gas stations themselves may be incentivized to sell more gas. They may be incentivized because they don't want to lose out on sales so they drop the price to match the competition."
DeHaan says gas prices have fallen in the past month along with prices for crude oil. He says the lower prices arrived more quickly in Ohio and other Great Lakes states than in other parts of the U.S.
"What we've seen in these Great Lakes areas is that prices have a tendency to drop at the fastest rate in the country. And indeed, another price war has broken out in London, (OH) with prices, somehow getting down to $1.89 a gallon," says DeHaan.
He adds that prices are also unpredictable during mini gas wars and could rise quickly at any time. He says prices are unpredictable during mini gas wars and could rise quickly.