US gasoline prices continue to fall in latest week

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline prices continued to fall last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Monday.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline fell 3 cents to $2.61 a gallon, down $1.50 a gallon from a year earlier, the EIA said in its weekly survey of service stations.

The agency said last week gasoline prices may have peaked for the summer last month.

"Barring an unexpected supply interruption or international price shock, the June 22 price of $2.69 per gallon may be the highest weekly regular gasoline price for the summer of 2009," the agency said in its weekly report on the oil market.

The average price of gasoline fell in every region of the country.

Gasoline was most expensive on the West Coast at $2.89, down 2.3 cents from the prior week. San Francisco had the highest big city gasoline price at $2.97, down 1 cent.

The Gulf Coast had the lowest regional price at $2.46, down 5.6 cents. Houston had the cheapest price at $2.38, down 4.6 cents.

The EIA also reported gasoline prices were down 0.9 cents at $2.62 in Boston; down 5.6 cents at $2.77 in Chicago; down 1.1 cents at $2.59 in Cleveland; down 0.9 cents at $2.49 in Denver; down 4.6 cents at $2.96 in Los Angeles; down 3.6 cents at $2.73 in Miami; down 2.2 cents at $2.68 in New York City and down 0.7 cents at $2.81 in Seattle.