Did I miss something?

[Young@Heart]

I feel really foolish asking this, but has something happened w/ the oil market recently? Our gas prices just took a (small) drop this week, which is great for us because we'll be driving over 2500 miles in the next couple weeks. I haven't seen anything about prices going down, but I noticed it at the pump. Is this happening all over the country?

[scoot241]

Yes! The price of oil has dropped approx. 20 dollars in the last 7-10 days. Right now a barrel of oil is around $125. So far, gas prices have only been affected a little, but we may see gas continue to drop.

I don't know how far oil is going down, but it's at least a little relief.

[Claudielou]

Oil prices went down last week.

[Young@Heart]

Thanks! This is such great news for our driving budget! I'd love to see gas go down a little more still. It's odd, because we have 3 gas stations in our town-2 lowered prices about 5 cents and the other almost 15 cents. Then when I was doing errands on Wednesday, I noticed even lower prices a few towns over. It's the first time we've gotten below $4.00 in many weeks. We had increased our Disney gas budget over the past couple months b/c gas was increasing at a higher rate than we'd anticipated back in January. It's good to know it's about where we'd thought it would be again.

[SBETigg]

Oil prices have already started bouncing back up, so I would be cautious with the budget and not expect prices to drop more or stay down. It could happen and that would be nice, but it also might not be a permanent swing in that direction.

[PirateLover]

Oil prices have already started bouncing back up, so I would be cautious with the budget and not expect prices to drop more or stay down. It could happen and that would be nice, but it also might not be a permanent swing in that direction.

As long as the trip is going to be this upcoming month they should be fine. It takes a few weeks for the prices of the barrels to really start to affect our price at the pump. As of yesterday, price per barrel hit a 7 week low after having jumped as high as nearly $150 about 3 weeks ago. So I think we will be seeing lower prices at least through to September. The article I read said that the average gas price could be 25cents cheaper than it was yesterday by labor day.

[SBETigg]

As long as the trip is going to be this upcoming month they should be fine. It takes a few weeks for the prices of the barrels to really start to affect our price at the pump. As of yesterday, price per barrel hit a 7 week low after having jumped as high as nearly $150 about 3 weeks ago. So I think we will be seeing lower prices at least through to September. The article I read said that the average gas price could be 25cents cheaper than it was yesterday by labor day.

That source of the 25 cents cheaper by labor day quote was the spokesman of AAA. I hope he's right, but further in the same article it talks of how oil traders don't exactly agree, how easily prices will rebound, and how no one is sure what will happen, exactly, considering the price per barrel is still 65 % higher than it was at this time last year and supply is under constant threat. I wasn't trying to put a damper on anyone's excitement and I hope the price goes down as much as anyone, but I remain cautious.

[dnickels]

And don't forget what will happen if a hurricane brews up and rolls through the Gulf. It's already been an active season and shutting down production and refining in that area would definitely cause a jump in prices.

[Lorraine444]

It has be declining here in Manchester, CT too!
It has gone from 4.29/gallon > 4.05 in about 6 days..... I'm amazed, but not getting my hopes up it will continue to drop. That would be only in my dreams, enjoy it while it lasts!

[Dsnygirl]

I did hear that oil went down a bit, and have seen a slight adjustment at the pump --

but one gas station, luckily it's the one (and only one) in my town -- REALLY dropped their prices last week, so low that they were in the paper! Well, now they are reaping the benefits -- you can barely get to a pump there, no matter when you go. They're teaching the rest of the stations nearby a little lesson, I think...

[Young@Heart]

Oil prices have already started bouncing back up, so I would be cautious with the budget and not expect prices to drop more or stay down. It could happen and that would be nice, but it also might not be a permanent swing in that direction.

Well, since we leave in 5 days, I think we're pretty good in assuming it'll stay down! In January, I had estimated $4/gallon. By May, I'd changed that to $5/gallon and hoped that would be the worse case scenario. Now that we're leaving in just a few days, I can breath a sigh of relief and go back to my original budget of $4/gallon. This doesn't make a bid difference driving around town, but taking a 2,500 mile trip-well, $1/gallon savings really adds up!

[TheMartellFamily]

I just saw it today and it was posted at 3.99 a gallon in our area. We are in a Chicago suburb and we have the summer gas blend that makes it more expensive than that just 5 miles north in Wisconsin.

[Ian]

On my way home from vacation yesterday I saw gas for $3.79 a gallon, which is a pretty big drop from where it was. Admittedly, though, this is a station well north of us where gas is usually very cheap.

At our local station, though, the price has dropped about 25 cents a gallon from its peak. That's still a nice decrease.

Oddly enough, however, while gas prices were falling all over the country, gas for my boat on the lake rose by 5 cents a gallon?

I actually had to pay $5.15 a gallon for on-water gas this season!

[Ed]

Oddly enough, however, while gas prices were falling all over the country, gas for my boat on the lake rose by 5 cents a gallon?

I actually had to pay $5.15 a gallon for on-water gas this season!

Ahhhhh, the beauty of trailering my boat!

However... I pull it with a diesel truck. $4.75 a gallon.

What really gets under my skin is that when the barrel price was rising, prices at the pump rose virtually daily, and they blamed it on the price per barrel. Now that the barrel price is dropping, the pump price is not dropping proportionally.

[Ian]

What really gets under my skin is that when the barrel price was rising, prices at the pump rose virtually daily, and they blamed it on the price per barrel. Now that the barrel price is dropping, the pump price is not dropping proportionally.

I know!! That irks me, too.

I remember when the price of oil was climbing really fast the prices at the pump changed sometimes two or three times a day!

But do they go down that quickly?? Uh ... no!

[DisneyOtaku]

I haven't seen gas drop so much over in my neck of the woods, but then again, I've only seen two or three places in my town where gas EVER got over 4.00--it's been steady at about 3.89 to 3.99 depending on the station (then again, I live in Louisiana, so my closeness to the Gulf may play a part in that)

[Dixie Springs]

$3.78, so far here. Nice trend!

I sometimes think if I'm feeling it with a 4-cylinder car, what about the folks with the monster SUV's? There are many huge SUV's/trucks in the parking lot where I work. Judging from their cherry appearance, most are not used for their intended purpose (e.g., off-roading, home construction, transporting families of 18, etc.). They carry one person, hauling a briefcase at most. Sad.

At least these folks have a sense of humor though - a co-worker was telling me about a bumpersticker on a big SUV that said "Buy a Hybrid - I Need Your Gas!"

[Jeff G]

What really gets under my skin is that when the barrel price was rising, prices at the pump rose virtually daily, and they blamed it on the price per barrel. Now that the barrel price is dropping, the pump price is not dropping proportionally.

I noticed the same thing. As I watched the financial markets oil would go up and within 24 hours the price at the pump went up. Just recently oil fell $10/barrel in three days but my local station took over a week to drop minimally.


The other thing I've noticed is that oil peaked at $147/barrel and the other day it was down to $124/barrel or a 16% drop in price. I'm not an oil expert but I would assume that a 16% drop in a barrel of oil would then equate to a 16% drop in gas prices (they went up at the same rate). At the peak I paid $4.09/gallon in my market and it's down to $3.74/gallon which is only a 8.56% drop.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

I saw $3.72 a gallon here this week, so yes its everywhere

[dnickels]

The other thing I've noticed is that oil peaked at $147/barrel and the other day it was down to $124/barrel or a 16% drop in price. I'm not an oil expert but I would assume that a 16% drop in a barrel of oil would then equate to a 16% drop in gas prices (they went up at the same rate). At the peak I paid $4.09/gallon in my market and it's down to $3.74/gallon which is only a 8.56% drop.

The main reason is that lately refiners have been paying more money for oil than they can sell their gas for. Independent refiners are actually losing money right now. The integrated companies like Exxon can afford to subsidize their money losing refineries because they are making money through extraction.