Continuing the trend of up and down fluctuations, average retail gasoline prices in Modesto have fallen 9.2 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.22/gallon Sunday, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 201 gas outlets in Modesto. This compares with the national average that has fallen 5.4 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.60/gallon, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.

Including the change in gas prices in Modesto during the past week, prices Sunday were 57.7 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 3.0 cents per gallon higher than a month ago. The national average has decreased 16.2 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 87.9 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago.

“The powerful combination of declining crude oil prices and robust production from U.S. refineries continues to pummel retail gasoline prices nationwide and it’s a trend we expect to continue,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy. “With West Texas Intermediate slipping to $43.75 per barrel on Friday and refineries exceeding 17 million barrels per day in each of the past four weeks, a level that hasn’t been reached since the Energy Information Administration began publishing the data in 1990, that explains why the national average price of gas shed six cents per gallon in the past week.”

“Even with the extraordinary price spikes in California earlier this summer that inflated the national average, improving conditions there have brought the state average from its mid-July peak at $3.90 down to $3.60 today and that average is 31 cents less than what Californians were looking at last year,” added Gregg Laskoski, another senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy. “Overall Americans are paying 88 cents per gallon less than what we were paying a year ago and some states like Indiana and Kentucky are saving more than $1 gallon versus last year at this time.”

GasBuddy is the premiere source for real-time local gas prices. Founded in 2000, GasBuddy.com developed as an initiative to provide consumers access to local, current gas prices. Through the GasBuddy.com website and the free GasBuddy mobile app, users can find and share gas prices with fellow drivers, saving big money at the pump.