The Energy Department recently predicted that domestic oil production, which averaged 8.6 million barrels a day in 2016, will average 9.3 million barrels a day this yearbr and 10 million barrels a day in 2018, blowing past the record set in 1970.br But with winter oil and gasoline prices considerably higher this year than last, motorists drove a bit lessbr and domestic oil companies ramped up production to take advantage of higher crude prices.br The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline tumbled to $2.35 on Friday, a drop of 3 cents in the past weekbr and more than 2 cents below last year at this time, according to AAA.