If oil prices are down, why are gas prices up?
September 11, 2008 by Tisa Silver
Filed under Finance
While watching CNBC, this morning the anchors reported an interesting statistic (sorry I couldn’t type fast enough for a quote verbatim!): In February 2008 when oil was trading at $100 a barrel, the nationwide average gas price was $3.06 per gallon, but today when oil is trading near $100 a barrel, the average price per gallon is $3.67.
Well, hurricane season certainly doesn’t help and Hurricane Ike is expected to inflict major damage on the Gulf Coast region. According to the AP, gas in the Gulf Coast region is selling between $4-$5 a gallon.
Catastrophic weather and extenuating circumstances aside, when the price of oil drops the price of gas should drop, too. A lag is to be expected, but when the weather was good after oil’s record high (7/11/08), did gas prices drop like they should have?














