EMERYVILLE, Calif. – As the fall and winter holiday travel season gets under way, Californian motorists continue to benefit from relative savings in the price of retail gasoline month-over-month.

According to the latest AAA Fuel Gauge Report, the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular ticks in at $2.84 per gallon, a savings of $1.01 from last year’s prices at this time.

The current average price in Northern California is $2.74 a gallon, a drop of $0.06 from AAA’s last Fuel Gauge Report issued on Oct. 13.

The least expensive fuel continues to be found in Marysville, where the average price for a gallon of regular is $2.47.

The highest price is in San Francisco, where the average price is $2.89 a gallon for unleaded regular gasoline.

The latest data from the U.S. Department of Energy puts gasoline production and the overall utilization rate at virtually the same levels as prior weeks.

Chevron’s refinery, located in Richmond, Calif., is reportedly undergoing the largest turnaround work in history, which also reported a major unit shutdown.

Prior to news of the unplanned outage, the refinery was in the midst of work estimated to last around 80 days. The work included maintenance to the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracker.

“Gasoline demand typically retreats during the month of November, offsetting any major spikes in price due to supply shortages,” said Cynthia Harris, AAA Northern California spokesperson. “But unplanned outages could create volatility and put pressure on the state and national average in the near term.”

Both crude oil benchmarks, Brent and West Texas Intermediate, closed out this past week with three days of losses due to reports of a strengthening U.S. dollar. This further fueled expectations that the market’s current oversupply will continue in the near term.

OPEC’s secretary recently issued comments stressing the cartel’s success at sustaining its market share in light of a lower price environment and stated the expectation that the market will return to balance in the coming year. The cartel plans to convene on Dec. 4 to discuss its strategy moving forward.

WTI opened this week trading higher, following news that the U.S. oil rig count fell for the tenth consecutive week.

This offsets some of the losses seen last week after WTI closed Friday’s formal trading session on the NYMEX down 91 cents at $44.29 per barrel.