Energy

US Gas Prices Drops for Fifth Straight Week

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The average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline dropped by nearly six cents in the past week, to start this week off at a price of $2.67, according to the latest data from GasBuddy. The cost of diesel fuel also fell two cents last week and now retails for $3.25 a gallon.

Month over month, the price is down by more than 22 cents per gallon but is nearly 12 cents a gallon higher year over year (last week the difference was 21 cents a gallon). Last month, the national average was $2.899, while the year-ago average was $2.557.

Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said:

The last week has seen another notable decline at pumps in nearly every state with average prices again plummeting, in some places to $1.99 per gallon or less, following oil’s longest losing streak in nearly 34 years. Every single day, Americans are spending nearly $100 million less than just 30 days ago- a significant and impressive feat as the national average gas price has shed over 20 cents per gallon over the last month. Oil’s demise has partially been due to the U.S. issuing waivers to countries buying crude oil from Iran, making sanctions moot, but also because ahead of those waivers, OPEC agreed to increase production to soften the potential blow from the Nov. 4 re-imposition of sanctions- yet now OPEC is upset and may again cut production due to the move by Trump to allow temporary waivers. What’s it all mean for motorists? The plummet at the pump may continue for now, but all eyes will be on OPEC to see what move they make to pump oil prices back up.

All 50 states saw gas prices fall last week with prices dropping the most in Michigan (10 cents), Ohio (10 cents), Kansas (nine cents), Indiana (nine cents) and Minnesota (nine cents).

The highest average prices per gallon last week were reported from Hawaii ($3.82), California ($3.69), Washington ($3.46), Alaska ($3.32) and Oregon ($3.29).

States with the lowest average prices last week included Oklahoma ($2.30), Delaware ($2.34), Louisiana ($2.36), Texas ($2.37) and South Carolina ($2.38).

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for December delivery traded down about 0.4% in the early afternoon Monday to $59.95, while Brent for January delivery traded at $70.73, up about 0.1%. The price differential (spread) between front-month WTI and Brent crude widened from $9.82 to $10.78 a barrel week over week.

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