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By Elliott Blackburn
THE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Fuel prices plunged overnight to their lowest levels in nearly 8 months, with individual stores shedding up to 12 cents per gallon to give the city its first look at gas prices below $3 per gallon since late February.

The city's average slipped 7 cents to $3.09 per gallon. Fuel prices just under the $3 mark became much easier to find heading into the weekend, with Fina the lone chain priced above the city average among stations seen early Friday afternoon.

 The local per gallon average has fallen 56 cents in less than a month, following the crude and stock prices down.

Drivers shouldn't expect it to last, said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University.

Oil slipped below $78 Friday - its cheapest in 13 months. A mid-November meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries could send the price back up.

Recent cuts by the cartel failed to stop crude's plunge, and analysts who spoke with the Associated Press doubted another cut would do much for prices.

But turmoil in the stock market has clouded the commodity's real value, Bullock said.

"I think, just as we overshot a real price on the way up, we're going to overshoot it on the way down as well," said Bullock.

Texas cut 6 cents from the state average overnight, dropping to $3.22 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service.

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