Average Wichita gasoline prices dip from a week ago, but rise on Monday

The average price of regular gas hit an average of $1.71 per gallon in the Wichita area Monday, down 7 cents from a week ago.

But the average price jumped overnight after gas prices dipped to $1.61 over the weekend, the lowest since early 2009. That beat the best price Wichita consumers had previously seen this year – $1.69 on Jan. 27.

Local prices are 46 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and 79 cents lower than a year ago.

The national average of $2.03 per gallon is near its lowest level since March 25, 2009.

Much of the price drop over the past year has come because OPEC members, particularly Saudi Arabia, didn’t reduce production even though U.S. shale oil production had ramped up dramatically, resulting in a global oversupply.

Some OPEC members are trying to get the organization to lower production to push up prices. So far, Saudi Arabia hasn’t budged from its position to keep pumping as before.

“As for the outcome of OPEC’s meeting late last week: OPEC is going to wait for production to resume from Iran before looking at oil production quotas again next year,” Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst, said in an e-mail.

“While we wait and see what that the next meeting might bring, high oil production will likely continue to boost already record high oil inventories, keeping gasoline prices somewhat subdued.”

Updated gas prices can be found at Kansas.com/gas-prices.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Average Wichita gasoline prices dip from a week ago, but rise on Monday."