Gas prices dip below $3 in Roxboro

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gas prices continued to fall Tuesday across the state, with the average for a gallon of regular unleaded at $3.45, according to the AAA.

In Roxboro, however, motorists on Durham Road are seeing prices of $2.99 a gallon along U.S. Highway 501, the result of a minor price war among local stations.

"We have to keep up with our competitors," Kelly Whitaker, who is the assistant manager at the nearby Quality Mart. "If they go down, we have to go down, because we want to keep our business."

And that's OK for motorists, like Gwendolyn Obriant, who filled her car up and had change to spare.

"It was great," she said. "I called my daddy and told him to come get him some."

North Carolina has one of the highest fuel costs in the nation, partly because of the state's gasoline supply comes from one pipeline that serves at least eight other states.

That, coupled with retailers' hesitance to lower prices until they recover their gas supplies, put the state behind only Hawaii and Alaska as the most expensive state in which to buy gas.

Industry experts say the statewide average should continue to drop each day as the state's inventory continues to build over the next few weeks and retailers – who rely on gasoline to draw customers inside their stores for other merchandise – begin to feel comfortable.

Statewide, prices are down 5 cents from Monday and 52 cents from a month ago, according to the AAA.