Gas prices stabilizing, says AAA

Though gas prices did go up after the events in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, they have begun to stabilize.

“We saw about a 10 cent jump in gas prices, both here in Kansas and on the national level,” said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas. “Despite that, Kansas is still 25 cents cheaper compared to a year ago and we’re still the 11th cheapest prices in the nation.”

As of Monday, Kansas average gas price is $2.45 a gallon. The big reason pump prices went up is because the price of crude oil went up.

“We saw crude oil prices go up to $64 a barrel,” said Steward. “By the end of the week, that price had gone back down to $58 a barrel. Things have started to stabilize, it looks like.”

Saudi Aramco stated that crude oil exports to customers would continue by drawing on existing inventories and offering additional crude oil production from other fields. In addition, the typical decrease in U.S. demand in the fall is happening.

“This past week, we saw a pretty substantial 900,000 barrel per day drop in demand across the country, which is a reading we had not seen since February,” said Steward.

At the end of last week, Tropical Storm/Depression Imelda dumped as much as 45 inches of rain in Texas, but industry reports show refineries are operational. The impact of the storm – including
flooding – is not expected to have an effect on gas prices.