For the fourth straight week, the national average price of gasoline has fallen, plummeting 12.8 cents over the last week to $2.08 per gallon today according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The average price of diesel, meanwhile, fell 6.5 cents to $2.66 per gallon.

“Gas prices have spent virtually all of March marching lower, with the drop continuing as the coronavirus destroys oil demand globally, leading to the lowest oil prices we’ve seen in 18 years, paving the way for still an additional 35-75 cent per gallon drop at most stations in the weeks ahead,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a collapse in prices, even including the Great Recession. What we’re witnessing is easily going to go down as the great collapse in oil demand, and for motorists hurrying to fill up today, they’re wasting their money as prices will continue to drop in the days ahead. Gas stations are passing along the drop several weeks behind, and there’s plenty more room for prices to drop, putting 99 cents per gallon prices as a strong possibility for perhaps many more stations than we previously anticipated. This is truly an unprecedented turn of events.”

Crude oil prices have continued to be under heavy selling pressure due to the coronavirus’ effects on global demand for products including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. In addition, a meeting March 5 by OPEC and Russia on how to stem the previous decline in oil resulted not in a production cut, but a feud between the two, with Saudi Arabia and Russia both saying they were going to raise oil production. The move caused oil prices to crumble to $20 last week, their lowest since 2002. As of early Monday trade, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 41 cents to $22.22 per barrel while Brent crude was down $1.44 to $25.54 per barrel. There has been some discussion that perhaps the U.S. would take the unprecedented step of cutting oil production via the Texas Railroad Commission, a move that hasn’t been seen since the 70’s. If pulled off, such a move could add a floor to crude oil prices and lead to a slight rally in oil, while refined products prices would likely remain significantly challenged in light of today’s reduced global demand.

Data from the Energy Information Administration last week showed a 2 million barrel rise in crude oil inventories as inputs to refineries slowed down, leaving refined product inventories to plunge. Gasoline inventories were down 6.2 million barrels while distillate inventories fell nearly 3 million barrels. It is largely expected that this week will feature a notable decline in product supplied to the market in light of millions of Americans being confined to their homes amidst shelter in place orders from the largest states.

At gas pumps, the decline has been significant- one of the most notable declines seen in history, so far rivaling the decline seen during the Great Recession, but ultimately this drop may soon outperform the latter. Better than one in four gas stations nationally stands under $2 per gallon as of Monday morning, with 5% under $1.75 per gallon. The most common gas price across the country stands at $1.99 per gallon, followed by $1.89, $1.79 and $1.69. The average cost at the priciest 10% of stations stands at $3.03 per gallon, while the lowest 10% average $1.59 per gallon. The median U.S. price is $1.97 per gallon, down sixteen cents in the last week while about 11 cents lower than the national average.