Gas prices down, may be short lived according to experts

Gas prices down, but it may be short lived, experts say

The national average for a gallon of regular gas is now $3.22, according to GasBuddy, a cent less than last year.

AUSTIN, Texas - Gas prices across the nation continue to drop, but experts said it may go back up soon.

The national average for a gallon of regular gas is now $3.22, according to GasBuddy, a cent less than last year.

"I’m glad to see that we’re finally getting back into the groove, just got to keep chipping away until it’s finally where it needs to stay," Austin resident Austin James Barnett said.

"It’s super exciting especially with the holidays coming up, you can save a couple dollars every time you get gas," Austin resident Brad Lepors said.

In Austin, the average is even lower at $2.60, good news for consumers who are still dealing with the worst inflation the country has seen in 40 years.

"It kind of offsets a little bit of that. I mean I think the food inflation is higher than what the gas deflation has been, but it definitely helps," Lepors said.

Patrick De Haan, head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, said the lower prices are because of higher productivity at refineries and reduced demand. "During the coldest months of the year, Americans tend to stay closer to home but also the price of oil has started or continued to drop in the last couple of months," he said.

He said a possible reduction in production could lift prices, though.

"Russia has said that it may stop exporting oil to some of the countries that participate in price gaps, so all this talk on price gaps and sanctions is kind of more a longer-term situation that we’ll have to keep an eye on but doesn’t necessarily cause prices to go up," De Haan said.

De Haan said demand usually increases in a few months, so expect gas prices to increase.

"Prices start a more significant rice starting in February and early March and that’s because we’ll start transitioning into summer gasoline, we will start seeing refineries do seasonal maintenance before the summer and that’s when the seasonality really picks up," De Haan said.

De Haan said if there are no major impacts to supply or demand in 2023, Americans should not pay as much at the pump as they did in 2022.