MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Thanksgiving travelers will greater in number compared to 2021 and prices are expected to drop through the weekend. On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick Dehaan advised motorists to put the brakes on a fill up if you can.
“If you don’t need the fuel, if you don’t need to fill your tank up completely I would say wait a couple of days because prices will be coming down through the weekend,” Dehaan said.
Dehaan said fears of economic woes and increased will combine to keep downward pressure on gas prices in the coming weeks.
“The good news is that prices will continue to dropping,” Dehaan said. “In fact, there are likely to be some stations across the state in the next couple of weeks that fall under $3-per gallon.”
As interest rates rise global markets contract causing the economy to deteriorate, and that’s something Dehaan believes will continue. The erosion of demand will continue as efforts to fight inflation continue.
“Renewed concerns about the economy, of course layoffs starting to mount and interest rates going up choking off the economy, ” Dehaan said.
During the pandemic oil production dropped to about 10 million barrels per day, but those numbers have been slowly increasing. Dehaan expects the production trends to continue increasing, but the Russia-Ukraine war will create supply concerns for the future.
“United States oil production now back at 12.1 million barrels-per-day and the rig count is up by over 200 compared to last year,” Dehaan said. ” So, oil rigs are returning and oil production is up.”