Last week’s plunge in world oil prices is being reflected this week at gasoline pumps and in tankers hauling heating oil and kerosene to area homes.

Regular unleaded gasoline can be found at many filling stations around the Twin Cities and beyond for $1.88 per gallon or less. That’s down as much as a dime from a week ago.

Home heating fuels are showing considerable price drops as well. No. 2 oil, which heats an estimated 80 percent of Maine’s homes, fell an average of 4 cents statewide since last week’s State Planning Office survey of the fuels.

Kerosene’s price declined by 7 cents over the week, and propane fell by a penny per gallon.

All of the heating fuels remain much higher than a year ago, however, with No. 2 up by 60 cents from early December 2003. Kerosene cost 63 cents more than it did a year ago and propane is 41 cents higher.

The state’s Office of Energy Independence and Security attributed the declining prices to a $7 drop in the price of a barrel of crude oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange last week.

The U.S. Energy Department last week noted that inventories of crude as well as distillates like No. 2 and kerosene were higher than earlier believed. That in turn sparked selling of oil futures into a bullish market for the commodities.

On Monday, however, crude prices climbed back up into the $43-plus per barrel range as traders grew skittish over continuing oil supply problems.

Among those concerns:

• OPEC signaled it could curb some crude oil output in an effort to keep barrel prices from plunging.

• An attack on the U.S. consulate building in Saudi Arabia raised fears that the world’s largest oil producer might face problems getting its petroleum to market.

• Hundreds of angry Nigerian villagers overran two pumping facilities owned by Shell and Chevron/Texaco, shutting down production of about 90,000 barrels a day. The Nigerians want a greater share of profits from oil taken from their country.

Crude oil had reached a global high of more than $55 per 42-gallon barrel in October.

As of Dec. 6

Heating oil Statewide Central Western Last year

Average $1.93 $1.93 $1.92 $1.33

High $2.03 $1.99 $1.95 n.a.

Low $1.75 $1.85 $1.90 n.a.

Kerosene $2.18 $2.17 $2.17 $1.55

Propane $2.02 $1.61

(Source: Maine State Planning Office)