Authored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times, Gas prices continued their sharp downward trend throughout December, falling by nearly 23 cents over the month to a national average of $2.75 per gallon on Dec. 29—the lowest level recorded since 2021, according to a report by fuel price comparison app GasBuddy. The national average price of diesel fuel, meanwhile, was $3.52 per gallon, a dip of more than $0.05 from a week earlier, GasBuddy reported. Increased domestic production, along with a late-year ramp-up in production by members of OPEC+, a coalition of oil-exporting nations, has led to increased domestic and global supply, despite ongoing sanctions against oil-rich countries such as Russia and Venezuela. According to Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, the national average price for gasoline has declined in all but a handful of U.S. states. “Oil prices have remained relatively low even amid the U.S. blockade on Venezuela’s oil exports,” De Haan said in a statement. “With refineries running at seasonally high output and gasoline inventories building, most states—outside of price-cycling …