Gasoline prices in the Roanoke Valley and in Virginia are stabilizing as some local gas stations lowered prices Tuesday by several cents, with some even landing under $3 a gallon.

Prices rose to more than $3.50 in some Virginia cities last weekend as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's wrath and damage to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast caused costs at the pump to skyrocket.

Prices in Roanoke averaged $3.11 for regular gas, according to a report of the latest transactions compiled Monday evening by AAA in Richmond. Average prices were $3.13 in Richmond and $3.13 in Virginia overall, according to AAA.

AAA spokeswoman Windy VanCuren said the $3 a gallon prices likely will drop soon, but it could take a couple of months before they return to prestorm levels, which were about $2.22 a gallon in Virginia in early August.

Prices fell somewhat over the weekend because some refineries were able to get back up and running.

One of the biggest factors in the price drop was the full return of the Colonial Pipeline, which runs from the Houston area through Virginia to Linden, N.J., said Brian Milne, editor of MarketWire, a news service that focuses on the wholesale refined fuels markets.

"That helped lower prices," Milne said. Also, Labor Day weekend, traditionally a time for high prices, is over. "We should see prices come off, maybe in a couple of weeks," he said.

The hurricane reduced overall U.S. refinery capacity by about 10 percent, officials said. A few refineries are still down, Milne said. "We're not quite out of the woods yet."

Refineries in the Midwest that were operating at a lower capacity have returned to full production.

Concern over how long it would take for the pipelines and refineries to get back up drove up prices last week, Milne said. Thus in the wake of Katrina, the supply/demand imbalance still exists.

"We still don't know what Katrina did to crude oil and the natural gas supply," which was already stressed, Milne said.

Imports expected from Europe and Asia are also likely to make prices at the pump come down.

Gasoline settled at $2.05 on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, down almost 13 cents from Friday's close. "That's a reaction to government efforts and improvements" following Katrina, Milne said.

Also, the wholesale price of gasoline has dropped, VanCuren said.

Monica Jones, a spokeswoman for Sheetz in Altoona, Pa., said, "As soon as wholesale prices come down, we'll drop our retail prices."