Gasoline prices continued to drop on Friday for the five consecutive weeks in Southern California which has the highest gasoline prices in the nation.

The drop of 8 cents a gallon was mainly attributed to lower wholesale gasoline prices and was the biggest drop in a 5-week-long downward trend, the Automobile Club of Southern California said.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular unleaded now stands at 3.255 dollars a gallon in the Los Angeles-Long Beacharea -- 7.8 cents less than last week, 22 cents less than last month and 2 cents less than at this time last year, according to the Auto Club's Weekend Gas Watch survey.

After rising for 14 consecutive weeks, the price fell 5.1 cents from June 1-8, 3.9 cents from both May 25-June 1 and May 18-25, and two cents from May 11-18 .

"It's rare for gas prices to come down this quickly," Auto Club spokeswoman Carol Thorp said. "Significant drops in the wholesale gasoline market in California are making these decreases possible."

The chance of continuing price drops was called into question after the price of a barrel of light, sweet crude oil for July delivery rose 1.39 dollars to 67.65 dollars in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday, the first time since September the price had closed above 67 dollars a barrel.

Analysts attributed the price rise to questions over refinery utilization, tensions between the West and Iran and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' refusal to boost production.