Prices are falling ... finally

After hitting a record $5 per gallon, gas prices in the area have started to creep back down, helping some consumers breathe a little easier and clutch their wallets less tightly.

Several local gas stations have managed to keep their prices below $4, including the Marathon at Niekamp Farm Market, located at 6133 Olding Road. As of Tuesday evening, Niekamp's regular gas price was $3.62 per gallon.

Chris Riemesch, office manager, said the family-owned company can keep the price so low depending on what "the rack price is that we get it at," she said.

She also said prices in Celina are higher, but the general range is $4, although all stations' prices in the area are decreasing.

According to GasBuddy.com, the cheapest prices for regular unleaded in the area are the Marathon in St. Henry at $3.61, Niekamp's Marathon at $3.62, Fort Site Fuel in Fort Recovery at $3.69, Shell in Fort Recovery at $3.69, Shell in St. Henry at $3.71, Marathon in Coldwater at $3.88, Shell in Coldwater at $3.89, Chickasaw Qwik Stop at $3.89 and Marathon in Rockford at $3.99. Cameron Rickard at Casey's in Fort Recovery said the price was $3.54 per gallon for regular unleaded.

Kyndall Fisher, Indiana, is the general manager at Casey's and said the station can keep the price so low because of price matching.

Fisher said another gas station, Fort Site Fuel, opened in town and Casey's was able to contact corporate to price match Fort Site Fuel's prices.

"The way our system works is we just match the gas stations in town and since they were the cheapest, we were able to go down (to) that," she said. "We're able to match them; can't go any lower than them."

"When they first opened, they were automatically almost a dollar cheaper than everybody around," Fisher continued. "They literally drop twenty cents every day. I don't know how."

Ryan Guggenbiller, owner of Fort Site Fuel in Fort Recovery said he's able to keep prices low through daily price analysis and low overhead.

According to Guggenbiller, the station is an unattended, unbranded store, meaning there are no attendants in the store and there is no name brand, such as Shell or Marathon attached to the store. This helps Guggenbiller keep the price so low because he has less overhead than what a traditional convenience store might have. By being unattended, Guggenbiller can stay open 24/7.

"I know the other two convenience stores in town here, they have, in the last two weeks, been price matching here, but they also own and operate other stores in the area that they haven't been lowering their price as they get new, cheaper product in," he said. "They're keeping a higher margin at other stores so that they can keep up with the pricing here in town."

To keep the price low, Guggenbiller has a system. He said he uses a spread sheet to track all of his operating expenses, as well as monitor his competitor's pricing.

"I get price quotes every day from a couple of different companies for different types of fuel," he said. "I don't always go with the cheapest because I want to make sure that we have a high-quality fuel. We have a fuel additive that we use (and) that is Top Tier fuel. Top Tier is a third party that grades fuel additives and that just means that the additive that we use meets their requirements in terms of giving you a good fuel that will clean your engine system, eliminate any negative side effects from ethanol in your fuel and give you a power boost in terms of improving your octane rating."

Guggenbiller said he finds the fuel he wants to buy and plugs the price into his spreadsheet to get his retail price.

Although prices are starting to decrease, not every station is as cost-friendly as stations in St. Henry and Fort Recovery. The Marathon on Main Street in Celina was $4.05 Tuesday night, the Shell on Main Street was $4.04 and Murphy USA on Havemann Road was $4.01.

According to AAA, Ohio's average regular unleaded gas price is $4.115 compared to the national average of $4.327. Mercer County's average is $3.957 and Auglaize County's average is $4.003.

Guggenbiller said he is worried people might not realize how competitive the market is.

"I feel like it kind of gets lost because (other stations are) price matching," he said. "If you look in other towns in our region here, you see some prices are still $4.29. Between Fort Recovery and St. Henry, things look really good, really competitive for the region. If you don't travel outside that area too much, you might just see it as the going rate now, when really I feel like we have a good competitive price regionally."

According to the Associated Press, gasoline prices have been surging since April 2020, when the initial shock of the pandemic drove prices under $1.80 a gallon, according to government figures.

Global oil prices have been rising - unevenly, but sharply overall - since December. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions by the United States and its allies have contributed to the rise. Russia is a leading oil producer.

The United States is the world's largest oil producer, but U.S. capacity to turn oil into gasoline is down 900,000 barrels of oil per day since the end of 2019, according to the Energy Department.

Republicans have called on Biden to help increase domestic oil production - for example, by allowing drilling on more federal lands and offshore, or reversing his decision to revoke a permit for a pipeline that could carry Canadian oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

However, many Democrats and environmentalists would howl if Biden took those steps, which they say would undercut efforts to limit climate change. Even if Biden ignored a big faction of his own party, it would be months or years before those measures could lead to more gasoline at U.S. service stations.

-The Associated Press contributed to this article.