Gasoline prices are plummeting nationwide, but Nevadans aren't sharing in the cost relief.

Numbers from AAA show the national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has fallen 18 cents in recent weeks, from $3 a month ago to $2.82 on Wednesday.

In Nevada, however, prices have dropped just 2 cents a gallon, from $3.05 a month ago to $3.03 on Wednesday. In Las Vegas, a gallon of gasoline cost an average of $2.97 on Wednesday, down from $3.01 a month earlier.

Analysts say overall fuel prices are down for several reasons.

Fighting in the oil-rich Middle East has abated with a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

This year's hurricane season in the United States has been calmer than forecasters predicted, with no storms thus far threatening oil production along the Gulf Coast.

Petroleum producer BP's Prudhoe Bay operation in Alaska has partly reopened after an Aug. 6 closure to address pipeline corrosion.

Record oil and fuel prices in the United States have attracted supplies from importers worldwide. And gasoline inventories are well ahead of where they were a year ago.

Those factors have doused the speculative ardor that propelled the cost of oil to an all-time high of $78.40 a barrel July 14. By Wednesday's close, oil had dropped to $70.03 a barrel. And because gasoline is more than 50 percent petroleum, falling oil prices are wending their way through to costs at the pump.

So why hasn't Nevada enjoyed noticeable fuel-price breaks?

Denton Cinquegrana, West Coast markets editor for the Oil Price Information Service in New Jersey, blamed the Silver State's dependence on gasoline from other places -- in particular California, which supplies nearly all of the Las Vegas Valley's car and jet fuel via two pipelines from Colton.

"The pipeline is always chock-full of product, and once that product gets to Las Vegas and is redistributed, it runs out pretty quickly," Cinquegrana said. "Supplies are always tight in Las Vegas, with the amount of demand you see from tourism and a growing population."

John Kilduff, an energy analyst with Fimat USA in New York, said the entire West Coast has seen less of a drop in gasoline prices than the rest of the country has witnessed.

Kilduff said lingering concerns over the potential for future pipeline problems in Prudhoe Bay are propping up prices in the West, where much of the Alaskan oil goes.

In addition, he said, Western markets, which have long used fuel heavy on the gasoline additive ethanol, weren't subject to fresh ethanol mandates that kicked in this year across other regions.

The new regulations require refiners nationwide to double the amount of ethanol, a cleaner-burning, corn-based gasoline component, in their fuel products. A temporary shortage of ethanol and a spike in ethanol costs followed, and that shortage boosted gasoline prices in newly ethanol-dependent markets.

Because Nevada wasn't in on the mandate, Kilduff said, the state isn't party to tumbling prices as ethanol production catches up to demand.

To longtime Nevadans, the state's rank among pricier gasoline markets is a return to normal.

Before Hurricane Katrina affected Gulf Coast production last year, Nevada was traditionally among the country's three priciest fuel markets, said Michael Geeser, a spokesman for AAA. As gulf-dependent regions felt the effects of Katrina, their gasoline prices surged ahead of Nevada's. Through the summer and until two weeks ago, Nevada generally didn't break into the 10 costliest gasoline markets.

That's changing: On Wednesday, the Silver State was tied with Washington at No. 6. Only California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Montana and New York had higher gasoline prices, according to AAA.

Despite Nevada's relatively high gasoline prices, research from AAA shows consumers will still venture out this Labor Day weekend for one last summertime hurrah.

Cinquegrana said local drivers can expect gasoline prices to continue dropping through the weekend.

"Cheaper prices are on the way," Cinquegrana said. "What you're paying today is not what you'll be paying over Labor Day weekend and next week. Prices are down in California almost 12 cents (per gallon), and that will certainly find its way into Nevada markets in due time."

Kilduff said a slowing national economy could reduce demand for oil and gasoline and further erode prices through the winter.

If third-quarter growth of the nation's gross domestic product is flat, the cost of oil could tumble to $50 a barrel by year's end, he said. He places the odds of halted economic growth at a little more than 50 percent.

"The economy is finally buckling under high energy prices," Kilduff said. "We've seen $70 a barrel persist and almost reach $80, and we've seen extraordinary gasoline prices. Those costs are insidious, and they're working their way through the economy."

If America's economy retrenches, China's could follow, as U.S. demand for Chinese-made goods slackens. Declining exports in China could in turn put the brakes on that country's 10 percent annual economic growth and reduce its demand for oil as well. That faltering need for petroleum could yield stronger global supplies and a sustained downward push on crude prices.

If oil falls to $50 a barrel, gasoline prices would drop to about $2.25 a gallon, Kilduff said.

But world events could counterbalance the effects economic torpor would have on oil prices.

Kilduff said civil unrest in Nigeria has shut down the production of 700,000 barrels of oil a day and imperils the extraction of an additional 1 million barrels a day. Global daily demand for crude is about 80 million barrels, with the United States using about a fourth of that total.

"If we lose that (Nigerian) oil, we'll be off to the races toward higher prices," Kilduff said.

And if the Northeast United States experiences an especially cold winter, a jump in demand for heating oil could mean stiff competition for crude destined to become gasoline, he added.

Cinquegrana said oil prices could swing anywhere from $60 to $80 a barrel through the end of the year, depending on variables that could push costs in either direction.

Demand for fuel will dip when travel eases after Labor Day, as children return to school and families vacation less.

But hurricane season runs through Nov. 30, so major storms along the Gulf Coast are still possible. And Iran could roil global oil markets if it flouts today's deadline to halt its uranium-enrichment program. However, Cinquegrana said the effects of Iran's refusal to cease uranium refining wouldn't have an immediate impact on prices, because the wheels of diplomacy would grind slowly as international bodies move toward a response to the country.

"If we have no major storms (along the Gulf Coast), and if Iran and the United Nations can come to an agreement on Iran's uranium enrichment, we could see oil below $60 a barrel by the end of the year," Cinquegrana said. "If everything breaks right, that would mean gasoline prices under $2.50 a gallon."