The price of a gallon of Regular-grade gasoline is now below the 2-dollar mark at many gas stations in downstate Illinois.
Analyst Patrick DeHaan, with the gas-price-tracking website GasBuddy.com, thinks those prices may be within five or ten cents of bottoming out. He says gasoline prices should start rising in January or February, when oil refineries cut back production for seasonal maintenance and retooling. But DeHaan predicts gas prices in 2015 will stay lower overall than the year before.
DeHaan credits the overall drop in gasoline prices to increased U-S oil production due to fracking … and the decision by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations to lower their oil prices as well. But he cautions that the current low prices could end, if the Saudis decide to change their policy.