Energy

First US Gas Station Drops Price to 99 Cents per Gallon

Paul Ausick

Published: March 19, 2020 11:33 am

Last Updated: March 19, 2020 11:34 am

The first station in the country to return to 99 cents per gallon regular gasoline is here: GasBuddy confirmed at 6:20 a.m. CT that a BP station in London, Kentucky, has lowered its price to 99 cents per gallon, according to a cashier who answered the phone, as well as GasBuddy users who reported the price to GasBuddy app.

The station is the first in the nation to reach the mark that GasBuddy had anticipated could pop up in the Great Lakes states a week or so ago.

Some experts have pointed out that many drivers cannot take advantage of these historically low gas prices. State and local restrictions on gatherings, along with school and business closures, have kept Americans off the roads. Retail store traffic is collapsing as well, as shoppers stay home.

Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, commented: “Absolutely amazing to see how quickly prices have fallen, and the return of something few Americans have seen since the early 2000s. We’re in uncharted waters due to demand plummeting in light of the coronavirus situation, and yesterday oil prices fell to their lowest level since 2002 in a sign of the deep distress our economy is facing.”

The last time the U.S. average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was under $1.00 was 1989. The average came close, though, at $1.06 in 1998. In November of that year, some crude contracts fell as low as $10.82 a barrel.

According to GasBuddy, gas is cheapest on average in Oklahoma ($1.846 per gallon), Mississippi ($1.884), Kentucky ($1.902), Missouri ($1.904) and Ohio ($1.905). The average price is below $2.00 a gallon in 17 states.

Only two states are reporting prices above $3.00 a gallon: Hawaii ($3.666) and California ($3.260).

The national average price is $2.148 per gallon, down nearly two cents compared with Wednesday’s average. The average has fallen by nearly 28 cents in the past month and is almost 39 cents a gallon lower than this time last year.

Normally at this time of year, gas prices rise as refineries begin emptying their tanks of winter gas and replacing it with higher cost summer-grade fuel. Some refiners are said to be asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to forgo the changeover to summer fuel in an effort to drain the unsold supply of winter fuel. U.S. law requires the switch to occur on May 1.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude traded at a low of $20.06 a barrel on Wednesday before closing at $20.83. Western Canadian Select (WCS), the grade delivered from the oil sands of Alberta, dropped to less than $6 a barrel Thursday morning.