HOUSTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Gasoline prices fell for the sixth consecutive week, quickly approaching levels before Hurricane Harvey caused widespread price spikes, said a report on Monday.
Average gasoline prices dropped more than 5 cents per gallon in the Houston area in southern United States. Nationally, they slid about 2 cents per gallon according to data collected by GasBuddy, which tracks fuel pricing.
The average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Houston area is 2.21 U.S. dollars, about 11 cents higher than before Harvey, while the national average is 2.44 dollars, also 11 cents above its pre-storms average.
Harvey knocked out nearly a quarter of the nation's oil refining capacity, causing gasoline prices to surge nearly 20 percent, but nearly all of that refining capacity is back online now.
Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, noted that the United States has maintained fuel costs below 3 dollars a gallon for nearly three consecutive years now.
"In fact, the national average may continue to decline for a few weeks before leveling off as gasoline inventories continue to heal after Harvey," he added.
Hurricane Harvey blew ashore on Aug. 25 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in the south central region of the United States in more than 50 years, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and damaging some 200,000 houses in a path of destruction that stretched for more than 480 km. The Houston area suffered severe flooding after heavy rainfalls.
