As oil prices continued to slide this morning—remaining below the $50 per barrel threshold that was cracked on Monday—a new forecast from GasBuddy.com says prices at the pump this year will average $2.62 a gallon.
As USA Today reports, that’s 72 cents below 2014’s average of $3.34 and nearly $1 a gallon below 2012’s all-time record of $3.60. Plummeting prices will save U.S. motorists about $97 billion overall this year, or about $750 per household, says GasBuddy.com Senior Analyst Patrick DeHaan.
The forecast, released this morning, says retail prices are expected to rise gradually through the peak driving season, topping at $3 a gallon by May. In 2014, gas prices peaked April 28 at about $3.70. The price-tracking website’s forecast is based on benchmark West Texas crude trading in the mid-$50s per barrel.
In Baton Rouge this morning, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas is $1.99, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge. That’s a decline of a penny from Monday, and a drop of 47 cents over the last month. A year ago, gas sold for an average of $3.11 in Baton Rouge.
GasBuddy.com’s forecast comes a day after the price of West Texas crude plunged 5.3% to $49.88 a barrel in intraday trading—the first drop below $50 since April 2009—before settling at $50.04. Crude oil now has sunk 53% from a peak of $107.26 last June, while gas prices have tumbled 102 straight days to an average of $2.20 a gallon.
“As much we were thrilled by $2.99 gas at Thanksgiving, we now enjoy $1.99 gas in many places,” DeHaan says. “I fully expect we’ll soon become complacent with those $2.99 prices once these sub-$2 prices stick around a bit longer.” Read the full story.
