--- title: Already Cheap Gas Will Get Even Less Expensive This Summer description: An oversupply of oil is resulting in downward pressure on pricing, and lower oil prices mean that cheaper gas prices are coming. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-07-25T18:46:01.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T11:29:23.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Autos - Gas - Gas prices - Oil - pubdesk word_count: 363 canonical: https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![160725_em_oil_prices](https://img.money.com/2016/07/160725_em_oil_prices.jpg) As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $2.16, according to [AAA](http://gasprices.aaa.com/). It's been more than 12 years since prices were this cheap at this time of year—a peak period for driving, what with summer vacations and road trips. Yet all indications show that prices at the pump will drop further still. As [Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-25/morgan-stanley-on-oil-prices-a-refinery-driven-correction-is-upon-us) and others have reported, analysts say that there is an oversupply in the global oil market right now. Oil refineries have been producing gasoline in quantities that exceed driver demand, and the result is an oil glut, as well as downward pressure on pricing. "U.S. crude oil supplies are at their highest level for this time of year in 86 years," [AAA noted](http://gasprices.aaa.com/gas-prices-fall-lowest-price-since-april/) in its weekly report on Monday. As a result, "Gas prices are likely to remain low for the remainder of the summer compared to recent years." Oil and gas prices generally have a symbiotic relationship, in which the latter generally follows the lead of the former. Though gas price cuts sometimes occur more slowly than drivers might wish, cheaper oil generally equates to cheaper fill-ups at the gas station. Oil prices hit historic lows in early 2016, and even though gas prices rose through the first half of the year, they remain [phenomenally cheap](https://money.com/gas-prices-cheap-low-2016/) in the grand scheme. At last check 11 states are already averaging under $2 a gallon. The price of a barrel of oil fell to [under $45](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN1040Z7) on Monday, the lowest it's been since early May. Forecasts had previously called for gas prices to decline toward the end of summer and fall, with predictions that the national average would be below $2 a gallon by November. ***Read Next:* 10 Things That Will Be Cheaper During the Summer of 2016** Now it appears as if we'll dip below that $2 mark nationally even sooner than earlier expected, given how inexpensive gas is already. As a [GasBuddy post](https://blog.gasbuddy.com/posts/Air-Might-Be-Hot-Gas-Prices-Are-Cool/1715-650077-3785.aspx) noted on Monday, "Today's gas price climate in the U.S. finds nearly 40% of the nation's approximately 135,000 gas stations selling a gallon at under $2 per gallon while a year ago, 0% of stations were at such low prices." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Gas Prices", "item": "https://money.com/gas-prices/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Already Cheap Gas Will Get Even Less Expensive This Summer" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/", "name": "Already Cheap Gas Will Get Even Less Expensive This Summer", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-07-25T18:46:01.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:29:23.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Already Cheap Gas Will Get Even Less Expensive This Summer", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/07/160725_em_oil_prices.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1066, "caption": "160725_em_oil_prices" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-07-25T18:46:01.000Z", "description": "An oversupply of oil is resulting in downward pressure on pricing, and lower oil prices mean that cheaper gas prices are coming.", "abstract": "An oversupply of oil is resulting in downward pressure on pricing, and lower oil prices mean that cheaper gas prices are coming.", "@id": "https://money.com/cheap-gas-oil-prices/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:29:23.000Z", "wordCount": 363, "keywords": [ "Autos", "Gas", "Gas prices", "Oil", "pubdesk" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Gas prices", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_prices" ] } ] } ] } ```