An Allsup's convenience store on Cerrillos Road and the nearby Peerless Tyre Co. apparently helped ease the pain of Santa Fe's high gas prices Thursday.

Both stations were charging $3.93 at midafternoon, 13 cents below the citywide price of $4.04 at many stations.

"We had to go down," said Royce Scheetz, manager of Peerless Tyre. "We always have to be under our competitors."

The station at Horseman's Haven was also lower, charging $3.94. The price at the Smith's service station on Cerrillos Road was $3.81, but getting a discount requires a gas card.

Scheetz doesn't think the lower price will stay here. "I wish it would," he said. "But you never know about the gasoline market. It's very, very squirrelly."

Most drivers will be pleased to pay a little less, even temporarily but, "The price is still awfully high for people to be smiling about it," Scheetz said.

Nevertheless, the gas pumps were busy at Peerless Tyre, despite the improvement project on Cerrillos Road.

Allsup's declined to comment.

Santa Fe's current downward blip in gas prices probably won't be around for long.

Regular gasoline is expected to remain above $4 per gallon until the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration, which provides U.S. government statistics.

"The oil market remains tight, evidenced by rising prices, low surplus production capacity and the concern that global supply growth may not keep up with demand growth over the near term," the EIA said.

On Thursday, light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $5.60 to $141.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The increase came amid news of another missile test by Iran and worries about more supply disruptions in Nigeria.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.