News

The Houston region last saw an average gasoline cost of $2.00 in May, before summer demand and rising crude prices raised the cost at the pump. Now, oil prices are falling and so is gasoline demand since its peak around the Fourth of July.

While the U.S. this year may still break the record for gasoline consumption, demand has fallen a bit below expectations, said Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, which tracks gasoline prices and refining activity.

Also, the nation’s large glut of cheap oil has increasingly turned into surplus supplies of stored gasoline.

“Not only are gas prices nationally at their lowest level of the summer, but they have continued to decline as the glut of oil and refined products has persisted,” DeHaan said in a prepared statement. “Almost every state saw a decline in gasoline prices versus last week, thanks to crude oil prices approaching their lowest level of the summer.”

Gasoline prices are expected to fall further below $2 a gallon throughout the rest of the year.

DeHaan noted that refiners are seeing their profits erode as gasoline inventories continue to mount.

Gasoline prices fell by about 3 cents in the past week in the Houston region, while prices dipped about 6 cents nationally, down to an average of $2.15 a gallon.

Locally, prices are as low as $1.67 a gallon in Humble and as high as $2.89 per gallon near the Houston Galleria.