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GasBuddy: Price Drops Likely to Continue at Gas Stations in Indiana
STATEWIDE–A gas price increase to $3.89 at some gas stations in Indiana last week has the organization GasBuddy puzzled, but prices are expected to keep going down.
“Gas stations are resellers. They buy gas at one cost and they sell it for another. The difference between that is their margin. The jump to $3.89 just didn’t make sense. The margins were not at the point where they needed to go up to $3.89. $3.69 would have been a better target. Some wholesale clubs Monday morning are holding it at that level,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.
DeHaan says if you see a station selling it for $3.89, then it’s best to not go there and shop around for some place that’s cheaper. Although there will be an occasional price cycle, he expects prices to keep going down for the foreseeable future.
“Gas prices typically go down in the fall months because demand for gas goes down and we switch over to cheaper winter gasoline. Those ingredients typically lead to a downward trend,” said DeHaan.
If there are disruptions to refineries like outages or a hurricane, then that trend would head the opposite direction.
The deadline to avoid a government shutdown is September 30th. As for how gas prices could be affected by a government shutdown, DeHaan says that’s hard to say for sure.
“It certainly would have an impact on the stock market, which would then have an impact on oil. It would probably cause the stock market to decline and make oil prices go lower. That could push gas prices down, but I don’t think it would be too significant,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.
You can listen to the full interview with DeHaan below.
