Those prices dropped by about 5 cents per gallon from Wednesday to Friday.
Gas prices have seen some roller coaster moments the past 15 months. In 2022, prices soared right past $4, peaking around $5.06 in June. After coming back under $4 about a year ago, they dipped lower, as just six weeks ago, many local stations were selling gas for about $2.95.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said several factors caused five consecutive weeks of price hikes before they backed off a bit this week.
That includes Saudi production cuts and their extension from July into August and September, which caused oil prices to rise. In addition, a heat wave down south caused more of a direct impact on prices, De Haan said.
“The nation’s largest footprint of refineries is Texas and Louisiana, which is why a massive heat wave down there is going to lead to some issues,” he said. “Five or six different refineries got kicked offline for various unexpected failures during the heat wave.”
In addition, the largest refinery in the Midwest moved up its seasonal maintenance to several weeks earlier than expected, causing a somewhat unexpected jump at the pump in the Great Lakes, De Haan said.
Ohio gas prices hit a plateau on Aug. 12 and have been cooling off since then, De Haan said.
Also pushing the needle back on the high price of oil is the fact that the Chinese economy seems to be “struggling mightily,” he said.
“We don’t have a lot more insight into this, moving forward, other than the fact that it’s so bad, the Chinese are not going to report this data anymore,” De Haan said.
DaytonGasPrices.com showed several stations as low as the $3.30s per gallon Friday afternoon, several of them in Beavercreek, Centerville, Dayton, Fairborn, Washington Twp. and Xenia. However, because there is always variation in the market, other local stations are selling regular gas for as much as $3.69 per gallon.
Inclement weather from the tropics could affect prices but right now it’s “way too early” to know if that will be the case.
“The odds are very low that those are going to get into the Gulf of Mexico as powerful storms,” De Haan said. “It’s something to keep an eye on and I can’t give you a good forecast without putting the caveat out there that if Mother Nature decides to throw a Category Five (Hurricane) into the Gulf, all bets are off.”
De Haan said he’s hopeful that the most likely outcome with everything factored in would be that gas prices may ease for the next week or two.
Something that likely will affect gas prices is stations switching to winter-grade gasoline, said AAA Club Alliance spokeswoman Kara Hitchens.
“While winter grade is cheaper to make, that maintenance period is going to slow the production of gasoline,” Hitchens said. “Refineries aren’t going to be able to make much gasoline if they’re down in maintenance for the switchover, so that’s going to tighten the supply.”
While the upcoming Labor Day weekend is not as busy a travel period as the days surrounding Memorial Day and Independence Day, many motorists will still try to make last-minute trips as summer ebbs and fall weather sets in.
“The trend is telling us that travel is still up, but is it up enough to impact gas prices? That we really can’t say,” she said.
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