The price of gasoline in Maine has dipped below $2 a gallon for the first time since 2009, at two stations in Waterboro, and the manager at one of the stations predicts it won’t be long before gas prices statewide drop that low.

“If we can do it, everybody can do it,” said Scott Hayes, manager of Town Line Deli & Bakery, on Main Street in Waterboro.

His station on Friday dropped its price-per-gallon for regular gas from $2.14 to $1.99. In response, one of the station’s competitors in town, Lakeside Market, a Gulf station on Route 5, dropped its price to match it.

Outside of Waterboro, the lowest prices for gas in Maine can be found in Kittery, where an Irving station on Route 1 is selling gas for $2.05, and in Hollis, where Station House Gas is selling gas for $2.06, according to GasBuddy.com, a website and app that tracks gas prices at individual gas stations in each state.

The average statewide price on Sunday was $2.27, according to the American Automobile Association. A year ago, the average price in Maine was $3.53. The highest-ever price was $4.14 in 2008.

The last time the statewide average for a gallon of regular gas in Maine dipped below $2 was in 2009, when the average was $1.85 in January that year.

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Motorists in 18 states have already seen their average gas price drop below $2 a gallon over the past few weeks, spurred by an increase in U.S. and Canadian production of oil and weakening global oil consumption because of sluggish economic growth.

Maine prices are still higher than the national average, in part because the Northeast region is further away from oil-producing and refining states, and tends to import more oil from the European market, where oil prices are generally higher. Those higher prices are then passed on to the consumer.

Sandi Binette, co-owner of Lakeside Market, said her station had been forced to lower its prices to compete with Town Line Deli & Bakery and is not making money on the gas but rather other purchases customers make at the store.

The managers of both Waterboro stations say their fuel sales have doubled since they dropped their prices. At Town Line Deli & Bakery, customers must come into the store and pay upfront. They often over estimate how much it costs to fill up and end up returning to the cashier to get money back, said Brenda Sylvestre, a clerk working at the cash register.

“They are all excited,” she said. “It’s like Christmas.”

Binette said downward pressure on prices will continue and that she expects prices at other stations will also fall below $2 a gallon at some point this year.

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“It’s a much slower trend than it has been, but the trend is still down,” she said.

The savings will translate into more disposable income, said Michael Soucy, 41, of Biddeford, who was filling up his PT Cruiser at the Town Line Deli & Bakery on Monday.

“It’s going to help everybody out,” he said.

Nationally, the average price for regular gasoline at the beginning of this week was $2.13 per gallon, according to AAA’s daily survey of 120,000 stations nationwide.

AAA estimated that consumers nationwide are saving more than $450 million per day on gasoline compared with the high prices in spring and summer 2014, according to the Associated Press.

The slide is expected to continue in the short term. Prices nationally dropped seven cents from a week ago and have dropped for a record 109 consecutive days, Moody said.

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He said the lower prices will be good for Maine, since they will encourage people to drive more, providing a boost to the state’s tourism industry.

“The extra disposable income in people’s pockets as a result of lower gas prices is expected to spur travel,” he said.

Still, Chris Cavallaro, 30, a Waterboro resident who commutes to work at Kennebunk, said he worries that the lower fuel prices are just temporary.

“It’s awesome,” he said of the lower prices. “But how long will it last for, though?”

 


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