Gas prices dropped below $2 per gallon at several Central Oregon stations Tuesday, enticing customers to fill up for less than half the price of fuel about four months ago.

Prices for regular unleaded gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon in Bend on Tuesday, 8 cents below the state average, according to AAA’s Fuel Price Finder.

“We’re stoked,” said Jade Brown, 25, of Bend, who was filling up with a friend at the Conoco-Phillips gas station, formerly an Exxon station, on U.S. Highway 97 in north Bend. The price reductions help ease costs of driving to visit family in Portland every other week, Brown said.

The steady drop in fuel prices, which peaked in the state July 3 at $4.29 per gallon, has followed a steady decline in confidence among investors in the U.S. and global economies, said Marie Dodds, spokeswoman for AAA Oregon/Idaho.

In Central Oregon, the price drops are different for another reason — Bend and Redmond are typically priced higher than the rest of the state because of factors that include trucking fuel over the mountains, Dodds said.

“It’s a little bit of a fluke,” said Dodds, referring to Bend’s prices being lower than the state average. “Sometimes, you get stations that are very competitive for a variety of reasons. The sad news is that gas prices will go up again when the economy starts to recover.”

The national average, at its lowest level since March 18, 2005, fell another 15 cents to $2.07 this week, according to AAA.

Crude oil prices, meanwhile, closed at $54.39 per barrel Tuesday, down 63 percent from the record high of $147 per barrel set in July.

The lowest-priced fuel could be found at Space Age in Bend and Plumb Fierce and the Towne Pump in Redmond, each of which sold a gallon of gas for $1.98 Tuesday, according to www.oregon gasprices.com, a Web site that relies on consumers to report gas prices for select stations from around the state.

Several other gas stations in both cities were selling gas for $1.99 per gallon, according to the Web site.

“We got a call from (the corporate office) telling us to bring our prices down,” Malachi Smith, a cashier at Space Age, said Tuesday. “We have seen a lot of increased business today.”

The price drop is good news, said Stacey Anderson, 35, a mother of two. When gas prices exceeded $4 per gallon, Anderson paid roughly $100 to fill up her Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle, she said.

She would like to see the price keep dropping.

“The higher prices (over the summer) really affected us,” Anderson said. “I remember when I was a teenager — the price was $1.09.”

Prices might have bottomed out at $2 per gallon, said Larry Kimmel, vice president of Bend Oil Co., which distributes fuel to 22 Shell stations in Oregon.

However, further economic declines and softening of demand could lead to even lower prices, Kimmel acknowledged.

Stations in Central Oregon such as Arco and Fred Meyer, which tend to offer lower prices, have increased competition in the area, he said.

Prices in the region are sometimes higher than the state average, but other times they are lower. Overall, they balance out, Kimmel said.

“We have a situation right now where Arco has become extremely aggressive on pricing,” Kimmel said. “The prices have been taken down much lower than the rest of the state.”

Arco could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Lower gas prices offered some solace for Donald Sutherland, 60, of Bend, who said his 401(k) had lost 30 percent of its value in the last three months.

Sutherland filled up at Conoco-Phillips on Highway 97 in north Bend, one of two stations on the road that had lowered prices to $1.99 Tuesday. The other was the Union 76 just down the street.

“It certainly makes things better than they were,” Sutherland said of the lower gas prices. “I am glad I can drive again and not think about gas prices every time I take my car out of the garage.”