U.S. Gasoline Prices Continue to Drop…Possible result of U.S. economic concerns?

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U.S. prices at the pump slid by 3.5 cents over the past week, hitting a national average of $3.44 per gallon on Monday and down 37.2 cents from a year ago, according to GasBuddy, as oil prices reel from three consecutive weeks of declines.

The national average price per gallon at the U.S. pump is now down 5.6 cents from a month ago, with diesel prices also falling 2.3 cents last week and now resting at 39 cents lower than a year ago.

“With oil prices plummeting due to new concerns over the U.S. economy after a poor jobs report, gasoline prices have seen downside in many states, with potential for more to join that trend this week as previous refinery disruptions in the Great Lakes region fade away and the restart process begins,” GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, wrote on Monday.

GasBuddy also noted that while Tropical Storm Debby raised the supply risk factor in the Gulf of Mexico, it now “poses low risk to refineries or refined product pipelines”, removing this pressure point from the markets. Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida at around 7 a.m. ET on Monday, decreasing to a category 1 hurricane by the time it hit land, but threatening flooding on the Gulf Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

De Haan also said that while oil prices are being counterbalanced by unpredictable conflict escalation in the Middle East, he expects “gasoline prices in most states to gently decline in the week ahead, with the Middle East situation being a wildcard”.

At the same time, GasBuddy demand data shows a 3.9% rise in U.S. retail gasoline demand for the week ended August 3rd, with demand now at 9.28 million barrels per day, against last week’s EIA inventory report showing a 3.4-million barrel decline in crude oil stockpiles. That decline puts US oil inventories at 6.7 million barrels below last year in the same period.

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