“Barring any issues in production or jumps in the price of crude oil, AAA expects gas prices will continue to fall in this region leading up to the Labor Day holiday”. The national average has decreased 9 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 77.5 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago. In Tennessee, the peak price to date this year has been $2.58 (on June 17).
Advertisement
Greeley resident Grant Lowe, for example, couldn’t believe his eyes at the pump last week. With gas so far averaging $2.50, that would indicate further drops in the fall.
“It will slow down, not stop the decline of gas prices across the country”. Then oil came back down, but gas prices just kept steadily climbing. It had fallen from a high of $120.92 per barrel.
BP’s Whiting, Ind., refinery is still crippled by the loss of distillation equipment. “It is similar to a medium-sized refinery going off line”, said Speer, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com. Paducah’s average price was slightly lower, at $2.44, the report said. Prices had been at their lowest since 2009, causing people to forego efforts to cut down on their fuel use. “It just needs a little time to correct itself”.
“It doesn’t affect me”, Westbrook said. “We do foresee prices to increase until early September”. Although there is no time frame for the completion of the fix work, reports indicate the unit may be shut down for a month or more.
But it may be a while before there’s any relief at the pump. This continues to put downward pressure on the price of gasoline, which dropped another two cents last week in the southeastern U.S. At $2.17 per gallon, South Carolina topped the list, while California was at the bottom with its $3.59 per gallon average. Whether prices will return to the $1.14 range remains to be seen. The only difference is what will that pace be?
Advertisement
Oil is trending down due to concerns about lower economic growth in emerging markets, expectations of higher oil exports from Iran, and continuing actual and expected growth in global inventories.
