Posted on 01/02/2015 10:59:50 AM PST by DaveMSmith
The average price for a gallon of gas has dropped for 99 days in a row, with six states – Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri – having average prices under $2 for the first time since 2009, according to price surveys Friday.
Prices have plummeted about 40 percent since the start of June.
Put another way, the Auto Club estimates that Americans are saving $500 million -- per day, each day – compared to the high prices paid last spring, allowing that money to be spent with businesses other than oil companies or just kept in the savings account.
“The global oil market remains in a state of perceived oversupply due to record production from the United States combined with lower than expected global demand,” says the AAA. “Despite falling crude prices, Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest exporter of petroleum, has reiterated the cartel’s intention to maintain current production levels and allow the market to self-correct.” The Auto Club’s experts say this could put pressure on production with higher cost production areas, such as the United States, facing a market where low prices make production unprofitable.
“The ripple effects of prolonged low oil prices could also pose a challenge to countries whose economic stability is dependent on revenue from oil production,” the AAA’s report says. “As has been the case in recent years in Egypt, Libya and Iran, this sort of geopolitical unrest can impact global supply and pressure oil prices higher on the threat of a disruption.”
The national average price on the second day of the New Year is $2.231, down 9.3 cents since last Friday, the AAA says.
California’s average price for a gallon of gas on Friday, Jan. 2 is $2.637, down 5.3 cents in the past week. A year ago, Californians were paying, on average, $1.026 more per gallon, according to the AAA. The average price at the pump is below $2.50 per gallon in 38 states with drivers in the Midwest paying the lowest averages in the nation, while the most expensive prices in the continental United States are in the Northeast continue to pay the highest averages in the continental U.S., led by New York ($2.81), Vermont ($2.74) and Connecticut ($2.69).
Hawaii ($3.53) and Alaska ($3.09) remain the nation’s most expensive markets for retail gasoline and are also the only two states with averages above $3.00 per gallon.
Following are the Central Valley average prices for Friday, Jan. 2 driving from south to north, as reported by the American Automobile Association, with last week’s (Dec. 26) averages in parentheses and [Dec. 19] prices in brackets:
• Bakersfield, $2.704 ($2.746) [$2.834]
• Visalia-Porterville, $2.595 ($2.665) [$2.730]
• Fresno, $2.605 ($2.642) [$2.732]
• Merced, $2.615 ($2.671) [$2.773]
• Modesto, $2.480 ($2.525) [$2.608]
• Stockton-Lodi, $2.516 ($2.570) [$2.660]
• Sacramento, $2.533 ($2.591) [$2.680]
• Yolo, $2.559 ($2.608) [$2.697]
• Yuba City, $2.498 ($2.566) [$2.635]
• Chico, $2.501 ($2.571) [$2.663]
The market average price for self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area on Jan. 2 is $2.654, down 5.7 cents from one week ago, the AAA says. In San Diego, the average price is $2.623, down 5.6 cents from a week ago, according to the AAA’s figures.
After 33 weeks in a row, San Francisco is no longer the market with the highest average price. That honor on Jan. 2 falls to San Luis Obispo, which sports an average of $2.818, the AAA says, two cents more than the average up the coast in San Francisco.
For the fourth straight week, California’s lowest average price is in Modesto, the AAA says. On Jan. 2 it is $2.480, down 4.5 cents over the past week.
A hamlet in Stanislaus County – the unincorporated area known as Empire near Modesto – can claim the lowest price for a gallon of gas in California as the New Year opens. A liquor store in Empire has set its gas pumps for $2.099, according to the price comparison website GasBuddy.com.
The closest a motorist can get to paying $5 per gallon in California on Jan. 2 is at a 76-brand station in Santa Monica, which wants $4.999 per gallon, says GasBuddy.
Down another dime. That’s the story for gas prices in Oklahoma City, Okla., over the past week, keeping the title of lowest price in the country in that city, says GasBuddy. An independent on Jan. 2 will take $1.579 per gallon, according to a GasBuddy volunteer price spotter. Dig around in the car’s seat for loose change because that’s a cash price.
Methodologies
GasBuddy bases its figures on reports from volunteer “price spotters” reporting specific locations in the U.S. and Canada. They are not independently confirmed. The AAA’s prices are market averages for self-serve regular grade (87 octane) gasoline. They are calculated daily from credit card purchases and compiled by the Oil Price Information Service and Wex Inc., formerly known as Wright Express.
Not every station is surveyed and not every market is included in either report. Both price surveys note that there can be wide variations within any market.
Gasoline prices throughout California are higher than the national average and usually among the highest in the nation. That is due in part to taxes and a state law mandating a special blend of fuel to reduce polluting emissions.
This was with 90 cents off per gallon or 900 fuel points mind you. I just had to take a picture of that. It cost me 20 bucks to fill my car up from empty with high octane and to top off my truck.
I think here in Toledo, Ohio gas is around 1.71/gal for 87 octane as of 2 days ago.
I must speak with Peter!
We only needed Printing Presses Producing Paper!!!
NW Arkansas
$1.83 to $1.85
It was $1.93 Monday
A lot of the dialog on this thread sounds like a Guy Noir sketch. I don’t care much for Garrison but I will generally give him a nod there. Pete as well.
Have a link since I have absolutely no idea what you speak of?
$1.88/9 in mid-Missou.
Had to look that up. Wonder if Leslie Nielsen used that in “The Naked Gun”?
Simple. Thanks to fracking the U.S. is approaching self-sufficiency in oil. The Saudis are deliberately depressing the world price in an attempt to bankrupt the American fracking industry and eliminate competition.
Possibly the most Prolific Pontification yet!
Pleasant Perfection, Praise!!
It immediately went up a dime per gallon where we are.
$1.77 in Kansas City this morning.
I’ve never seen anywhere near this gap between E10 and ULSD.
It’s nearly $1.50.
I've had a hard time understanding it as well. I can understand some difference, especially considering how heating oil has an effect on diesel prices this time of the year.
I have searched for articles discussing this for some time. I have not found anything of substantial comparison.
The stocks levels explain the pricing.
But I don't understand the cause for the stock level differences.
Click the charts for the data sources. Distillates demand is about steady while gasoline is rising. Production for both are about steady. Net imports seem to be steady...
Just over 6 years ago, I said that we have more oil, gas and coal than any other country in the world. As a matter of fact, we have more natural resources, and if we just started taking advantage of that fact, we’d be the biggest oil, gas and coal exporter in the world. Just think what would happen if we became the world’s largest exporter of these natural resources? We’d be worlds largest lender, instead of being the worlds largest debtor. Truth be told, we have enough of these natural resources to last us 300 years.
Thanks for the info!
If we had ALL the answers we could hire Warren Buffett as our butler, LOL.
The spread between gasoline and diesel has been hard / impossible to explain for several years now. They were once pretty close together. As a member of the oil and gas community I am embarrassed by it since it does not have any real rational explanation. Diesel does have a higher BTU content but that does not explain the difference. With the high supply of near condensate shale oil diesel should be plentiful and relatively cheap. It is very easy to refine. Even the low sulfur does not explain the price difference and the additional tax on diesel does not either.
I see as much as a dollar spread.
I also saw diesel prices range from 3.25 to 2.45 on US 69/75 from Houston to W. Arkansas.
The switch from diesel to ULSD has been a reasonably steady difference in price to gasoline, until the last six months.
The refining into diesel is no longer simple with the EPA ULSD requirements. Even the sweetest crude needs a hydrotreater to make the specs.
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