PORTLAND (AP) — Because it doesn’t depend directly on oil from the Gulf Coast, Oregon has dodged the gas price bullet from Hurricane Ike, for now anyway, the Oregon-Idaho AAA says.

The organization said Tuesday its weekly survey shows a slight drop in prices, 3 cents a gallon, against a nationwide average increase of about 20 cents a gallon.

Oregon’s average price was at $3.73 a gallon.

That’s the 34th-highest in the nation, the AAA said, a contrast to the usual situation in which Oregon is among the nation’s 15 most expensive states for gasoline.

Oregon prices remain about a dollar higher than they were a year ago.

Crude oil prices closed at $92 a barrel Tuesday and dipped below $100 this week for the first time in six months from a high of $147 on July 11.

There were fears that Hurricane Ike would disable Gulf Coast oil production, but damage was less than some expected.

Marie Dodds, the AAA spokeswoman for Oregon and Idaho, said Oregon does not rely on Gulf Coast refineries for its gas.

“States that do saw a dramatic increase,” she said Tuesday. “There were 14 refineries in Texas and Louisiana closed because of Ike.”

She said this region saw a similar situation after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“A big number of states were affected, but we were not among them,” she said.

Most gasoline in the Northwest comes from refineries in Washington, Canada and the Caribbean, she said.

Dodds said the 14 refineries closed by Hurricane Ike produce about 3.7 million barrel of gasoline a day and serve 20 percent of the nation.

She said the national average rose by about 35 cents a gallon after Hurricane Katrina.