Seasonal gas price drop in Georgia continues

ALBANY — Average gas prices in Georgia have declined for eight straight days, with the lowest average among the state’s eight largest metro areas on Monday coming in Albany.

Albany was 2 cents above the average motorists in the metro area were paying a year ago, while statewide motorists as a whole were paying 7-7.5 cents more than they were in November 2015.

“Gas prices are falling because of low demand and oil prices, but also improvements in gasoline supplies,” Mark Jenkins, a spokesman for AAA–The Auto Club Group, said. “Florida cities remain well-supplied and it appears the Southeastern states that took a hit from the Colonial Pipeline outage a couple of weeks ago have fully recovered since the restart.

“Gas prices should move another nickel lower this week, unless there are unexpected disruptions in supply or spikes in oil prices.”

Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said impact of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency is being looked at for market effects, but he said that politics isn’t fueling the current decline at the pump.

“While it’s less than a week after the biggest upset in U.S. election history, energy industry experts are already speculating on what steps a Trump administration might enact first; whether the earliest initiatives might eliminate regulations or perhaps look to increase domestic oil and gas production,” Laskoski said. “The Keystone XL Pipeline, for instance, is expected to find itself in a more favorable environment for approval, but it remains debatable whether such a development would directly benefit U.S. consumers.

“Over the next few weeks, expect prices at the pump to move lower based on market fundamentals, not politics. Inventories remain healthy and wholesale gasoline prices across the U.S. today, on average, are more than 10 cents per gallon lower than where they stood just a week ago.”

In their surveys Monday, GasBuddy had the national average at $2.159, while AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report had it benchmarked at $2.167. That’s down about a nickel in a week and 8.4-9.4 cents below last month. Compared to last year, U.S. motorists are paying a penny to 1.4 cents less per gallon, the surveys found.

Georgians on Monday were paying an average of $2.173 (GasBuddy) to $2.179 (AAA), a decline of 6.2-6.9 cents in a week and 9.1-9.4 cents below last month.

Metro Albany residents on Monday were paying an average $2.07, down 9.1 cents in a week and 11.4 cents cheaper than last month, according to the Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Albany was 1.4 cents cheaper than No. 2 Macon, while the most expensive gas Monday was in Atlanta, where it averaged $2.228.

The Nov. 30 meeting of OPEC member nations is still something market experts are looking at, but AAA officials say there’s increasing skepticism that OPEC will go through with supply-tightening measures that could send prices up. U.S. crude ended at its lowest settlement Friday since Sept. 19, they said

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Another factor that can affect gas prices is tropical weather in the Atlantic should a storm form and impact the refinery and production region in the Gulf Coast. With just over two weeks left in the “official” Atlantic hurricane season that ends Nov. 30, the National Hurricane Center said Monday that a low pressure area off the coast of Central America had a 60 percent likelihood of becoming a tropical depression by the end of this week. The low is expected to move north to northeast.