Drivers traveling for the Fourth of July weekend will save hundreds of millions of dollars on gasoline as crude-oil prices have continued to decline.
Prices at the pump have been falling recently and should remain cheaper than they were a year earlier, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, the Boston provider of fuel-pricing data, told TheStreet.
"Gas prices look to continue decelerating in the days ahead and through the weekend as oil prices remain under $70 a barrel," he said.
"The national average is likely to be significantly lower this year than last year, some of which is due to a slowdown in the economy limiting demand. But the good news is that prices should continue moderating through the rest of the summer, barring hurricanes or other unexpected U-turns."
DON'T MISS: Oil Market Ignores Russia's Political Turmoil
Prices Remain Under $4 a Gallon
Experts said more people are planning to take road trips this holiday weekend than they did a year earlier. Some 36% of drivers told GasBuddy they plan to hit the road, an increase of 9 percentage points. from 2022.
On the July 4 holiday drivers will save $500 million daily compared to last year. Motorists who are headed out for vacations to celebrate Independence Day between June 30 to July 5 will spend $2.6 billion less for gasoline, said GasBuddy, which receives individual price reports from 150,000 gas stations.
So far this summer fewer people have been driving. Lower demand for gasoline has contributed to pushing down prices.
“Much of covid's revenge travel is behind us, and thus far this summer demand for gasoline has been softer than last year, helping to ease the pressure on gas prices," De Haan said.
Drivers can save $1.30 a gallon compared with last summer, when gasoline prices reached $5 a gallon as inflation soared. They hit $6 or even $7 a gallon in some states, De Haan said. The national average is predicted to be $3.49 a gallon on the Fourth of July.
Gasoline prices are expected to stay in the $3.50 to $4 per gallon range for the remainder of the summer, he said.
"This year is going to see far less pain at the pump on Independence Day weekend, with average prices down over $1 per gallon from last year in 47 states," he said. "Just Washington (down 55 cents), Hawaii (down 87 cents) and Oregon (down 90 cents) are seeing average prices less than $1 lower compared to a year ago."
Prices could fall closer to Labor Day unless unplanned refinery outages occur or hurricanes make landfall in the Gulf of Mexico, disrupting the refining of oil and transportation of gasoline.
Oil Markets Disregard Russia's Political Problems
The oil market on June 26 largely ignored Russia's political woes as concern about the production of global supply was damped. Prices for crude oil rose only slightly for both West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude oil.
Prices for West Texas Intermediate fell on June 27 by 1.93% to close at $68.03 a barrel while Brent crude traded at $72.75, up 0.33%.
President Vladimir Putin's leadership came under threat due to a short-lived insurrection from the Wagner Group, paramilitary troops under the command of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime Putin ally.
That ended June 24 with the Wagner Group's leader brokering a move to neighboring Belarus via President Alexander Lukashenko. The armed mercenaries left Rostov, a southern city in Russia, after initially advancing toward Moscow.
Russia has agreed not to prosecute any of the mercenary fighters involved in the weekend convoy.
But such political instability could disrupt oil supplies from Russia, which is a major world supplier.
Washington Drivers Pay Highest Price
Drivers in Washington are shelling out the most money for gasoline right now, paying an average of $4.92 a gallon, followed by California at $4.79 a gallon and Hawaii at $4.70 a gallon.
The cheapest gasoline can be found in Mississippi at $2.97 a gallon, followed by $3.08 a gallon in Louisiana and $3.09 a gallon in Tennessee.
The most common gasoline price is $3.29 per gallon, a decline of 20 cents from last week, while the median price is $3.39, unchanged from last week and 15 cents lower than the national average.
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