Gas prices are falling around the territory as international oil trends result in heavier wallets for Yukoners in the run-up to the holiday season.

At about $1.09 per litre, the average pre-tax price of regular unleaded gasoline in Whitehorse on Monday fell three cents below the price from less than two months earlier, according to the Department of Economic Development

Both prices notched under the $1.15 per litre drivers were paying all through September and October of 2013. And all three fall below the average of $1.21 that Canadians are paying at the pumps across the country.

Filling a tank full of regular at the Riverdale Super A now today will cost drivers $1.28 per litre. That figure, which includes the territorial gas tax of 6.2 cents per litre, is down from $1.30 last Friday.

Drivers locked into the Petro-Pass system need only shell out $1.20 per litre at Petro-Canada, before taxes. Diesel there costs about $1.29 per litre, not including the 7.2 cents-per-litre gas tax.

Dawson City, meanwhile, with a smaller customer base and more than 500 extra kilometres’ worth of transportation costs for tanker trucks, boasts prices like $1.38 per litre of regular at the ERS pumps. Premium and diesel currently cost ERS customers $1.44 and $1.52, respectively.

Prices for regular gas in the Klondike were higher than those paid by customers in Haines Junction, Destruction Bay and other communities.

Flyers as well as drivers may benefit from the international drop in the cost of crude oil — a barrel of the stuff plunged in price from US $95 one month ago to US $80 last week, rivalling benchmarks not seen since June 2012.

The average cost of jet fuel has fallen about two cents per litre compared to previous months, said Air North president Joe Sparling.

“We haven’t seen the full impact of crude prices dropping yet,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “But we’re seeing a trend for sure.”

Air North generally adjusts its fuel surcharge automatically based on wholesale prices. Sometimes it cuts the surcharge further to stay competitive, Sparling added.

Derrick Hynes, director of business and economic research at Economic Development, confirmed prices at Yukon pumps have fallen over the past week and noted the strong correlation between gas and crude prices.

“This was not a huge surprise because we have definitely seen a decline in crude oil in the south,” he said.

Hynes broke down the costs that make up the prices tacked up on marquees across the continent.

The costs of refining, transporting, warehousing and marketing the stuff — plus territorial and federal taxes, multiple markups and “the raw product itself” — all play into the equation.

“The largest contributing factor is the price of crude oil,” he said.

Hynes added that home heating oil — also derived from crude — would likely see a dip in retail price.

Furnace oil fell to $1.27 per litre last Friday, down from $1.34 as recently as early September. Those numbers straddle the price of furnace oil one year ago, $1.28 per litre.

“There is a clear relationship between the price that the consumer pays for gasoline for their vehicles and home heating fuel and the actual price of crude,” Hynes noted.

Propane, now at 91 cents a litre, has been rising steadily from its mid-July low of 78 cents.

Jason Parent, vice-president of M.J. Ervin and Associates, an Ontario-based company that monitors fuel prices, saw several reasons for the plunge in crude prices.

“From an international standpoint, there’s been some signals of weak demand from places where demand was expected to be stronger, places such as China and European markets,” Parent said in an interview Tuesday.

“The other part is on the supply side, where the U.S. has seen an explosion in production that really has changed the global dynamic with respect to spare crude oil capacity.”

He noted the rapid increase in shale oil extraction in parts of North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas over the past three to four years.

“It’s a type of oil that they knew existed but didn’t have the technology to really access.”

Innovations in hydraulic fracturing have allowed for more access and efficiency in capturing oil and natural gas buried in beds of shale rock, though the full environmental impact remains uncertain.

“It’s created a bit of a cushion in the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia,” where reserves are building up following the scale-down in demand from the East and West over the past several years, Parent said.

“They’ve cut back their production and are sitting on a pretty sizable cushion of spare crude capacity.”

He added that unrest in Iraq and Syria, “which normally would drive prices up,” has not had a hefty economic toll beyond the Middle East, particularly relating to oil prices.

Parent predicted a slow price climb may begin in February 2015, as suppliers prepare for the seasonal demand increase that typically accompanies a ramp-up in industries ranging from construction to travel to natural resources during the spring and summer months.