Gas prices took a dip this week and are about 25 cents lower than their recent highs.
- Data from the Oil Price Information Service shared with The Hill shows that the median price of gasoline in the U.S. is about $4.60 per gallon, down from about $4.70 per gallon a week ago.
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The data shows that a small percentage of stations — 2.3 percent — are below $4 per gallon. A week ago, just 0.5 percent were below $4 per gallon.
- Overall, prices are down about a quarter from recent highs; they were about $4.92 per gallon a month ago, per AAA, and rose as high as $5 per gallon in June.
Prices are continuing what has been a weeks-long downward trend, Devin Gladden, AAA National’s manager for federal affairs, told The Hill.
“One, we’ve seen oil prices decline. … They’re still elevated, but we’ve seen them break below $100 per barrel,” Gladden said. “We’ve also seen gas demand weaken a bit, and so those two forces have helped to put pressure on prices. And as those trends continue, we’re likely to see prices continue to decline.”
Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, said in an email that he thinks the current change is “an interlude and not a trend change.”
“What we saw in the last week was that the market had become overbought,” he said. “Those weaker buyers got flushed out.”
Kloza predicted that prices could drop between 5 and 25 cents between now and the end of next week, but he also said they would bounce back later in the summer before cooling down in September.
And, new indicators on Thursday had even forecasters who are more optimistic revising their projections.
- Patrick De Haan of price tracking website GasBuddy, who on Wednesday told The Hill he believed gasoline prices could fall by between 40 and 65 cents over the next few weeks, now expects them to drop between 20 and 35 cents.
- He cited increases in the prices of both oil and wholesale gasoline — prices paid by gas station owners who then sell it retail to consumers.
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