Approaching the end of the first week of November, crude oil prices fell to their lowest numbers sine the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as the futures market hints at a possible recession with great potential to lessen consumer demand.
Specifically, the US oil benchmark (West Texas International) slipped to below $90 a barrel last week for the first time since February. At the point of this year, Brent fell to $95 and WTI fell to $88 per barrel, with the overall RBOB gasoline futures market fell to $0.05.
Now, the crude oil price outlook is difficult to predict during such an unstable time as this but the distance bewteen WTI and Brent crude will likely continue to widen as long as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues. And with inflationary price increases on basic goods and commodities, consumers are cutting back on lesser necessities; unfortunately, that includes extra trips in the car and, thus, gasoline.
The good news, however, is that prices at the pump have been in decline for 49 days. As a matter of fact, the average price of gasoline—nationwide–is $4.11. That is more than 90 cents lower, on average, than nationwide prices from two months ago.
And the better news is that experts believe the national average per gallon could drop to $3.99 within the week, especially since at least 85,000 across 20 states have already reached this point. Delaware and North Dakota could be the next two states to join this roster.
GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis, Patrick De Haan, actually thinks fuel could reach as low as $2.99 (in some places) within the next several days. In a recent tweet, De Haan said, “…looking at markets right now and the possibility that we could see #gasprices at more than just a handfful of stations at $2.99/gal as early as next week.”
If this is true—and, again, it looks pretty likely—the next states that could experience this benefit would include any of these: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucy, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and/or Texas.
