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Area motorists received a late Christmas present this week as the price of regular unleaded gasoline dropped below $2 a gallon.
Many locations in the Altoona area were selling gas at $1.99 on Thursday, the first time the price of a gallon has been below $2 since Jan. 6, 2004, said Chelsea Pompeani, AAA East Central spokeswoman.
“Personally, I think it is great for the average citizen. It is wonderful to buy gas and heating oil at prices we haven’t seen for years. It is not good for those who have stock, but I am more interested with what it means for the average guy,” said Tom Martin, Martin Oil Co. president.
Travis Sheetz, vice president of operations for Sheetz Inc., agrees.
“It is great for the consumer. We’ve dropped about 20 cents a gallon in the last month. It has been dropping consistently for close to six months,” Sheetz said.
There are several reasons for the drop.
“The price of crude oil is as low as it has been in the past 12 years. When the price of crude oil falls, the price of gasoline will decline. During this time of year, gasoline is typically less expensive because the blends are less expensive,” Pompeani said.
“Most recently, the sanctions against Iran were lifted, and now they are producing and putting their oil back on the market. They have one of the largest oil reserves in the world. China’s explosive growth has stopped; they are not buying as much. Those are two big factors,” Martin said.
Sheetz said he is not sure the prices have bottomed out, but they will not last.
“By late spring and summer, refineries will do their maintenance work, and we will probably see a spike in prices,” Pompeani said.
“The OPEC countries may make an effort to get together and put a control on prices to try and stop this. But if they do this, our domestic production would go back up. It is a Catch-22 for OPEC; if they raise prices, our wells will go back into production,” Martin said.
The local price remains well above the national average of $1.82 a gallon.
Pennsylvania, at 70 cents per gallon, has the total highest gas tax in the nation, according to the American Petroleum Institute.