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Sustained high oil production in the Permian Basin, the Bakken region of North Dakota and Western Canada, along with the seeming willingness of OPEC to ride out the resultant plummeting oil prices mean gas prices will continue to remain below recent levels, according to GasBuddy.com’s 2015 Fuel Price Outlook.
In 2014, Texas saw an average fuel price of between $3.10 and $3.19 per gallon and ended the year with average prices dipping below two dollars. January projects to feature the cheapest gas prices, before Texas prices slowly climb to a predicted peak of $2.80 to $3.05 in May.
As Bud Weinstein, the associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute at SMU, told Unfair Park when we talked to him about falling oil prices in December, cheaper gas prices are good for the drivers who consume that gas, giving them more disposable income. Auto dealers also benefit from increased sales and selling more big, fuel-inefficient models.
The underlying causes of the price drop could be harmful to the economy of a state that relies so much on energy production, Weinstein said at the time. He warned that $40-a-barrel oil could be a problem. Monday, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate Crude briefly traded for under $50-a-barrel for the first time since April 2009.
