If you were out driving over the thanksgiving weekend, you might have noticed the drop in gas prices across the country. In Minnesota for Monday 27th of November the average price for is $3.072, Mid-grade $3.411, Premium $3.820 and Diesel $4.248.

There are some significant regional price discrepancies. For example, across St. Louis County gas prices are below three dollars averaging $2.95 per gallon, but in neighboring places like Itasca and Koochiching County prices are averaging $3.20 a gallon.

In an interview with WDIO, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy Patrick De Haan gave reasons on why we are seeing these discrepancies between gas stations that are in many cases less than 5 miles from each other.

“it’s really all about the makeup, how many competitors are in a given area and, how aggressive those competitors are. This is a common thing that we see even among states and cities that are only 15 or 20 miles apart. Gas prices can vary drastically simply because some stations are just less competitive.”

An important question we also asked him is on how motorists can save.

“I would encourage motorists to shop around using an apps like GasBuddy, Google, Waze or to check if there is a free loyalty program that a motorist can sign up for. Many stations have loyalty programs that can save you $0.3 to $0.06 per gallon. There may be credit cards available as well to reduce prices. There’s even a GasBuddy card called pay with GasBuddy that helps motorists save up to 25 cents. Driving more fuel efficiently like setting your cruise control and trying to set a few miles an hour slower will greatly increase your fuel efficiency.”

Low gas prices is a trend that may continue but, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be meeting later this week to discuss cut in oil production. If they do cut production, prices could spike before Christmas.