U.S. retail gasoline prices, already the lowest in two years, are poised to fall another 10 cents going into what typically is the busiest travel season of the year, financial analysts and government officials said on Nov. 16. Stations in at least 16 states report pump prices less than $1 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Thanks to plentiful national gasoline supplies, average retail gasoline prices have fallen nearly a third to $1.20 a gallon since May. They could fall further after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised the specter of a price war by deciding to defer an output cut due to ongoing competition with rival oil producer Russia. The slide at the pumps, now at lows not seen since July 1999, would be good news for travelers over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays -- usually the most active times of the year for automobile travel. The dramatic decline in pump prices comes with increases in the nation's gasoline supplies, which have grown in part thanks to a sluggish economy, low travel demand, and healthy refinery and pipeline operations. As of Nov. 12, U.S. gasoline supplies were nearly 13 million barrels, or 6.7 percent, higher than last year, according to industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API). Supplies could grow even more in the coming months after oil cartel OPEC decided on Nov. 14 that it would not implement its 1.5 million barrel per day crude oil output cut -- designed to shore up prices -- unless non-OPEC producers like Russia also reduce production. Russia on Nov. 16 resisted OPEC's urgings to cut oil exports and output to help world crude prices, saying no one could demand Moscow do anything and that recent oil price falls were not too worrying.
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