The prices at 49 stations in the borough
Staten Island is averaging $2.67 per gallon, according to GasBuddy, which monitors the prices at 49 stations in the borough. The cheapest gas is at Costco on Richmond Avenue and Forest Hill Road at $2.43. A Dongan Hills Exxon station charges the highest per gallon rate, at $2.73.
Even the highest gas prices on Staten Island today would seem outrageous to drivers just a few months ago. Gas in July averaged at $4.03 per gallon. Since the summer, Staten Island has seen a 34 percent drop in the cost of gas.
And gas prices could fall further, and bottom out by mid January. Tom Klosa, founder of the Oil Price Information Service, told NJ.com that gas at $1.80 per gallon --found at select unbranded stations in New Jersey as well as parts of Central United States -- is "close to cost."
"I think we will bottom out between now and Martin Luther King weekend," Klosa said in the report. "This is way beyond what we expected. The lowest price I heard is $1.80 [a gallon] and that is close to cost."
But analysts say the oil plunge will be short-lived. Cheaper gas means that people will begin using more, creating a higher demand that would slowly drive prices upward by the summer, according to International Business Times.
Chad Mabry, an energy analyst at the New York investment bank MLV and Co., told the business publication that global crises and instability of oil producing nations like Libya could also play a part in the price of gas, even as the United States starts to produce more of its own oil.