Gas Prices Drop In Pittsburgh, But How Low Could They Go?
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Gasoline prices are dropping at the pump, so how low could they go?
"Maybe just above two dollars," says Tim Redshaw, a director of the Pennsylvania Petroleum Association. "It could get there, but in the $1.90 range...I don't foresee that," Redshaw told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Monday.
States like Ohio have already dropped gasoline prices below two dollars a gallon.
But that's a big "maybe" here, says Redshaw.
"I think it's highly unlikely," he said.
Pennsylvania's high gas tax, second only to California, hurts with the tax alone bumping western PA gasoline prices at least 25 cents higher than those in Ohio.
But AAA's Jim Garrity says prices are falling as oil prices drop to a four-year low.
WATCH: KDKA's John Shumway Reports Live From The Pumps
"Cumulatively around western Pennsylvania, prices are down five cents this week as compared to last week," says Garrity.
The average today is $2.60 per gallon, but it'll drop more because oil producers Russia and Saudi Arabia couldn't cut a deal to limit the oil extracted and sold.
"So what both have decided to do is to produce more oil, which is crazy at this moment in time when world economies are slowing down," says financial analyst Rick Applegate. "There's not the need for the oil that they're going to be producing. Prices are plummeting. The market follows."
That means lower gasoline prices here in this region after dealers use up current supplies.
"People (dealers) have already purchased their gas maybe two or three days ago prior to the fall of Friday and today, so they are going to have to get through that inventory and get the new cheaper product in before they can lower the price," notes Redshaw.
Bottom line:
None of the experts KDKA talked to today could predict when or even if gasoline prices would drop to two bucks a gallon.
The market is very volatile when it comes to oil, and what goes down, usually comes back up.