By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — According to Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas, drivers are getting a little relief at the pumps.
"We have been seeing sort of an unexpected lowering of gas prices over the last few weeks, not only here in Kansas, but nationally," Steward said. "Kansas average gas price is $3.02 a gallon. That's down $0.04 in the past week and down $0.14 from a month ago. If we look back to where we were this time last year, we were at $3.25 a gallon. So, pretty significant drops in prices. Right now, we're $0.44 less than the national average, which is $3.46 a gallon, and that puts us sixth cheapest in the nation."
The fundamentals behind gas prices are looking good right now, too.
"It's an interesting trend right now," Steward said. "The supply of gasoline in our stocks is very high right now. There's typically no refinery maintenance this time of year, so our production capacity is at a very high level. Couple that with crude oil prices stabilizing and falling over the past month or so, we're now at $77 or $78 a barrel, whereas back in April, we were in the mid to upper 80s per barrel."
If the trend continues, there are opportunities to get even lower.
"We're flirting with that $3 a gallon threshold and possibly getting under that at some point," Steward said. "There are currently 18 counties in Kansas under $3 a gallon, including McPherson County, Reno County, and Harvey County here nearby."
With the first potential tropical system coming into the Atlantic soon, the hope is that it will not have a negative effect on refinery capacity.