Good news for motorists in the Rockies and West Coast: a dramatic drop in gasoline prices is coming.

GasBuddy expects that a dramatic wholesale slide will soon translate into much cheaper fuel prices in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada with some aggressive retailers likely to post $3 gal or lower pump prices. Already, some stations in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona are under $3/gallon.

The latest drop comes as global crude prices flirt with prices that are $25 barrel below spring highs. Additional factors include slumping gasoline demand, a return to cheaper winter blends of gasoline, and booming U.S. oil production.

GasBuddy projects that average gasoline prices in the West Coast and Rocky Mountain region will decline 15-30 cents per gallon from their current level over the next two months as refineries finish maintenance, putting even more downward pressure on retail gasoline prices.

“In the weeks ahead, we foresee average gasoline prices in the West Coast and Rockies dropping close to levels we haven’t seen since January 2011. We’ve witnessed a remarkable drop in crude oil and wholesale gasoline prices, with fears of a global crude oil price war supplanting worries about threatened Middle East oil exports. This should result in a big break for motorists on their fuel bill, especially when compared to what we saw this summer,” said GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan.

“During times of big decreases, we’ve noticed some stations pass on the decreases much faster than others. Smart motorists can find the stations dropping faster by shopping around for the cheapest gas prices using an app like GasBuddy,” DeHaan noted.