The Peak Oil Myth

[ThatHawaiiGuy]

U.S. Retail Gasoline Falls to $1.66 a Gallon, Lundberg Says


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ac7awTOtQMZU&refer=us

By Samantha Zee

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The average price of regular gasoline at U.S. filling stations fell to $1.66 a gallon as the nation’s recession sapped demand.

Gasoline slipped 9 cents, or 5.1 percent, in the two weeks ended Dec. 19, according to oil analyst Trilby Lundberg’s survey of 7,000 filling stations nationwide.

“It is not high price any longer, obviously, that is cutting into our gasoline demand,” Lundberg said in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “It is in fact the weaker economy and fewer people working.”

Crude oil, which accounts for about 59 percent of gasoline’s pump price, has tumbled 77 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel reached July 11 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

AAA, the nation’s biggest motoring club, said today that regular gasoline at the pump averaged $1.668 a gallon, down 59 percent from the record $4.114 in July.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of the world’s oil, agreed on Dec. 17 to cut output by 2.46 million barrels a day starting Jan. 1 in an effort to bolster slumping prices.

OPEC’s supply cuts may be outpaced by waning demand for fuel as the recession in the U.S. deepens. A gauge of leading indicators posted its biggest annual drop since 1991 in November, the Conference Board said last week.

Crude Drops

Crude oil for January delivery on the Nymex dropped $2.35, or 6.5 percent, to $33.87 a barrel on Dec. 19.

Oil futures fell as rising crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, leave little room to store inventories for delivery next year.

Supplies at Cushing, where oil that’s traded in New York is stored, rose 21 percent to 27.5 million barrels last week, the highest since May 2007, the Energy Department said on Dec. 17.

U.S. gasoline demand dropped 5.4 percent in the week ended Dec. 12, the most since Oct. 24, as the recession sapped demand, a MasterCard Inc. report Dec. 16 showed.

Motorists bought an average 9.098 million barrels of gasoline a day, down from 9.617 million a year earlier, MasterCard, the second-biggest credit-card company, said in its weekly SpendingPulse report.

The highest average price for self-serve regular gasoline in the U.S. was $2.41 a gallon in Anchorage, Alaska, Lundberg said. The lowest was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at $1.37 a gallon. On New York’s Long Island, the price was $1.92 a gallon.

[EXCUSE ME, Last I checked 2.71 was the best price on Maui which is last I checked still part of the USA...]

To contact the reporter on this story: Samantha Zee in Los Angeles at [e-mail]
Last Updated: December 21, 2008 17:15 EST