(Radio Iowa) – Gas prices started slowly dropping after the Memorial Day weekend, with many areas now seeing prices below four dollars a gallon. Triple-A Iowa’s Brian Ortner says the gas price drop coincides with a fall in oil prices. “And crude oil now is trading on the markets as of Friday below 90 dollars per barrel, which is great. If we talked a couple of weeks ago, we were 107, 110 on some days. So seeing that decrease is good, and hopefully we’ll see more of that translates back to the pumps.” Ortner says.
Ortner says there’s normally some seasonal increases in gas prices this time of year. “Summer months, the demand increases. And if you look at trends, we typically see prices increase over the summer because you have more activities, more sporting events, people are out of school, there’s more driving, there’s more vacations. So we see some of that increase on a year to year basis,” he says. Ortner says prices typically follow a set pattern.
“Prices when they go up, they go up like a rocket. When they go down, they go down like a feather,” Ortner says. “And will the prices drop as quickly as we saw them rise? More than likely not. A lot of factors to that, obviously, when businesses are buying their fuel, they’re buying at a certain price and they have that inventory that they need to get rid of before they’re replenished.” Gas prices in the statewide survey averaged four dollars, four cents a gallon.
“A week ago, we’re at 4-24 across the state. So a 20 cent difference from a week ago is a great sign for consumers,” Ortner says. Ortner says there survey shows Iowans aren’t planning on cutting back their summer travel despite higher gas prices.
