Experts say that because of Sandy, demand for gasoline is down - and that means less stress on your wallet.

The average price for a gallon of gas in Jacksonville is $3.40, down fourteen cents from last week.

“If you’re in Jacksonville, you’re doing a whole lot better than many other parts of the country right now,” said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com.

The rate of decrease in gas prices, according to Laskoski, is even better than nationwide prices.

Right now the national average price for a gallon of gas is $3.55, down nine cents from a week ago.

He says last week’s report from the Department of Energy indicted that East Coast refineries were operating at 81 percent capacity, which is relatively low.

“Then you add on top of that the refineries up in New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut – all those had to shut down, and it’s gonna create some stress on the supply side,” he said.

“We’re expecting prices to spike in those states.”

Many refineries shut down ahead of Sandy’s arrival.  According to Reuters, Phillips 66 said there was some flooding in low-lying areas of its 238,000 barrel-per-day Bayway, New Jersey plant.  It shut down Monday as a precaution and did not say when the plant, which had lost external power, might restart.

CNN reported that Hess, which runs a refinery in Port Reading, N.J., lost power Monday night and is not sure when it will restart.  Hess suspended operations at terminals in Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Virginia.

“It’s gonna take a little bit of time before they can get back up to full operations,” said Laskoski.

He says he’s keeping his eye on the Ohio Valley as Sandy makes its way towards the Great Lakes region.

But Laskoski says it’s quite possible Jacksonville won’t be impacted by the price spikes in the Northeast region because most of the fuel here comes from Gulf Coast refineries.

All gas price figures obtained from GasBuddy.com