Pump prices dropping

Pump prices dropping

For the first time in a long time, motorists might be catching a break with recent gas prices. Local gas prices have slowly dropped with stations selling fuel in the $3.29-$3.40 range. In some cases that is down by 30 cents a gallon or more.

In some parts of the state, the price for a gallon of regular gas has just dropped  below the $3 mark.

Analysts say that dropping oil prices and motorists changing their driving habits are helping decrease gas prices. Jim Smith with the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association says gas stations across the state are seeing a big drop in demand.

OPEC says it would hold an extraordinary meeting next month in Vienna, Austria to discuss the widening economic crisis and how it’s affecting the decrease in the oil market. Crude oil prices have steadily declined in the past weeks by about 40 percent since a record high of $147 a barrel in July as demand has lessened worldwide. Crude oil now sits at about $87 a barrel.

Libyan national oil company chief Shukri Ghanem on Thursday called on oil producing nations to cut output to "protect their interest (and) stop the loss of income."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.