Gasoline Prices, a Source of Pain Last Year, Have Come Way Down
“Who wouldn’t be happy to save the money?” said Eddie White, 46, who uses his pickup truck to make deliveries and offer rides through Uber. Filling up at least once a day, Mr. White, who lives in the Houston area, said he was saving roughly $420 a week. He is using that money to pay for classes that will help him become an insurance adjuster.
Aaron Hawkins, 22, manages a phone store and serves in the Army Reserve. His Reserve duties require him to drive regularly between Houston and Baton Rouge, La. He said he was saving between $150 and $200 a month on gas.
“It’s a lot better for everyone,” he said of the lower prices.
Prices spiked last year after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Oil traders had expected Russian exports to fall because of the sanctions imposed on the country by the United States and its allies in response to the invasion.
The war is still grinding on, but Russia has found a way to keep selling its oil, though at heavily discounted prices, primarily to China and India. As a result, global oil supplies remain plentiful. It also helped that the United States and other industrialized countries released oil from their strategic reserves when prices were surging.
At the same time, demand has not shot up for oil and the fuels produced from it. In the United States, use of motor fuels has not changed much from last year and has yet to recover to prepandemic levels. But that may be starting to change. Gasoline demand climbed over the last month, and AAA predicts a 7 percent increase in holiday weekend travel from last year.
Source: The New York Times
