Ho Ho Ho: Colorado Springs gas prices plunge to 21-month low

Rich Laden, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
3 min read
0

Dec. 22—Talk about a gift that everyone will enjoy at Christmas.

Colorado Springs-area gas prices have plunged in recent weeks, and averaged $2.678 for a gallon of unleaded regular Thursday — a $2.266-per-gallon drop from their record high of $4.944 in early June, according to GasBuddy.com, the online service that tracks prices nationwide.

Not only have local gas prices nosedived from their summer highs, but they're now at their lowest point since $2.652 on March 5, 2021, GasBuddy figures show.

And while prices averaged $2.678 on Thursday, motorists could find gas for as low as $2.299 a gallon at some service stations and convenience stores, according to GasBuddy.

"As 2022 draws to a close, we've seen gas prices cut nearly in half in some areas compared to earlier this year — a well needed break from the sky high prices we faced just six months ago," Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, said in a news release. "Finally, things are starting to feel a bit more normal with gas prices far more affordable."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, spiking crude oil prices, rampant inflation and stronger demand in the U.S. all contributed to record pump prices in 2022.

In an interview with The Gazette, however, DeHaan said Thursday that global oil prices have fallen for weeks in part because of reduced demand by China tied to the nation's COVID-19 outbreaks. In the U.S., meanwhile, refineries are up and running after fall maintenance and are supplying plenty of gas.

"That's been the decline, really," he said. "A seasonal drop in demand, economic concerns, COVID in China driving oil down. And that's a big deal because China is the largest oil importer globally. You remember what happened in the U.S. when our economy was shut down (because of COVID-19) — Americans weren't consuming as much oil."

Sign Up for Springs AM Update

Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country

Sign Up

View all of our newsletters.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

View all of our newsletters.

Though oil and gas costs have tumbled, DeHaan said the drop in pump prices might be near an end.

The national average price might stop just shy of falling below $3 a gallon, he said. On Thursday, it was $3.06, according to GasBuddy. Like Colorado Springs, the rest of Colorado averaged $2.678 a gallon.

"I hate to be the Grinch just ahead of the holidays, but I think the national average, at least, is probably within just a couple days of bottoming out."

Even if price reductions slow, DeHaan doesn't expect a sudden jolt higher in pump prices.

Heading into 2023, he says prices should remain stable during January and February.

By spring, prices will be tied to what happens in China. If its COVID cases decline, the country's economy improves and its motorists ramp up oil and gas demand and usage, global oil prices could push higher.

"It's almost a guarantee that starting in late winter, we're going to start seeing a more notable trend upward and if China is starting to reopen and COVID cases in China are starting to decline by then, we could see quite a bit of a rally in the spring," DeHaan said.

But, he added, "I still don't really see much risk of 2023 being the record-setting year that we saw this year."

Advertisement

Recommended Stories

  • Sam Bankman-Fried Traded In His $35 Million Mansion In The Bahamas For A Prison Cell With 35 Inmates But Claims "He Did Not Do Anything Wrong"

    Formerly disgraced FTX CEO and Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted in November of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His high-profile trial marked a significant chapter in the unraveling of FTX, which collapsed under suspicious financial practices, leading to intense scrutiny and legal action. For the first time since his incarceration, Bankman-Fried described his daily life in a detailed interview with journalist William D. Cohan of Puck. Do

  • Charles Schwab website ‘is a mess’: Hundreds of TD Ameritrade users complain about their new online home.

    “It wouldn’t surprise me if they see an outflow of clients over the next six months,” one user told MarketWatch.

  • Homes are overvalued in much of the U.S. — with these 5 states leading the list

    Home prices are overvalued nationally, according to a new report by Fitch Ratings, led by Southern states.

  • Nvidia Recently Bought 5 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks, and 1 Is Absolutely Soaring

    Nvidia is spreading some of its recently amassed wealth by investing in smaller AI companies.

  • Exclusive-Bank of America banker who died had sought to leave, citing long hours, recruiter says

    The 35-year-old Bank of America investment banker who died from a blood clot earlier this month wanted to leave the U.S. bank because he was working more than 100 hours a week, according to an executive recruiter who spoke with him about seeking a new job. Junior banker Leo Lukenas III died of an acute coronary artery thrombus, a type of blood clot, the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said last week. Lukenas said in mid-March that he wanted to leave Bank of America because of the grueling hours, Douglas Walters, a managing partner at GrayFox Recruitment, told Reuters in an interview.

  • Seeking 12% Dividend Yield? Analysts Suggest 2 Dividend Stocks to Buy

    Now that we’ve had time to digest the April jobs numbers, some strategists are getting worried about the economy’s mid-term outlook. The jobs report showed 175,000 new jobs added in the month – but that was the lowest gain in the past six months, and was accompanied by an uptick in unemployment, from 3.8% to 3.9%. Along with these topline numbers, the report showed declines in job openings and hires. For Roukaya Ibrahim, watching the US economy from BCA, this job report may indicate a shift towa

  • The 3M Dividend Cut Is Here. It’s Big.

    Materials company 3M declared a dividend of 70 cents per share on Tuesday evening. The cut means 3M will lose its status as a Dividend Aristocrat—companies that have raised payouts for at least 25 consecutive years. 3M had already told investors a “reset” was coming.

  • Walmart lays off hundreds of employees and requires others to relocate

    Walmart on Tuesday announced layoffs affecting several hundred jobs at the retail giant’s campus offices. It also said it will require most remote workers and personnel in its Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto offices to relocate to its primary offices in Bentonville, Arkansas; Hoboken, New Jersey; and the San Francisco Bay Area. The news, conveyed via a Walmart staff memo provided to The Associated Press, said the relocations will serve the goal of “bringing more of us together more often.”

  • What is a high-net-worth individual?

    High-net-worth individuals, those with net worths of $1 million or more and liquid assets, take different approaches to finance than others.

  • Smartphones Are About to Get an AI Boost. Here Are the Stocks to Play the Revolution.

    “You could almost argue that the smartphone is becoming a little bit closer to a washing machine than the cutting-edge, rapidly changing device category that it used to be,” says Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, a technology research firm. Samsung Electronics and Alphabet Google, which have spent years partnering on mobile phones—and the Android software that powers them—see a silver bullet in the form of artificial intelligence. “This new era of AI is a profound opportunity to make smartphones truly smart,” Sameer Samat, Google’s vice president of product management for Android, said during the Google I/O developers conference on Tuesday.