ARLINGTON, Texas — A big change is happening across North Texas. Gas station signs are beginning to swap the '4' at the beginning of prices for '3s.'
According to gas price tracker GasBuddy.com, prices in Texas have dropped 63 cents in the past month.
“It’s Texas,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy said. “You have refineries and oil production in your backyard. You have capacity.”
He says the drop is due to concerns demand would drop in an economic slowdown.
“The other part of the equation is gasoline supply is improved a small amount; small enough that it might move the needle,” he said. “Gasoline inventories in the US are up three out of the last four weeks.”
“Yeah, we’ve noticed it,” Gerald Mason, who was filling up in Arlington, said. “We keep an eye on it every day because we get gas a lot so we’re always checking.”
As of Friday evening, half of the top ten cheapest gas stations in the metroplex were all around South Cooper Street near Green Oaks Boulevard in Arlington with prices as low as $3.63 per gallon of regular while the Dallas average is $4.07. De Haan says it’s mostly random why one area would have significantly cheaper prices and is mostly due to stations competing.
“This is a treat. This is a treat,” said Sheba Carter, who was filling up at a Murphy station with $3.64 gas. “We’re happy! We need this relief. It’s the summertime. I do more running in the summer with my children than I do in the school year.”
According to GasBuddy, Fort Worth is behind only Sherman for the largest change in prices with a drop of 82 cents a gallon in a month. De Haan says there could still be another 25-40 cents to go.
“That would be great. That would be absolutely wonderful,” Melody Clark said. “I paid as much as $5.01. I stayed home a lot then.”
Americans are spending $175 million less on gasoline every day than a month ago and 20,000 stations across the country are under $4.00/gallon according to GasBuddy. Still, a bad hurricane season or improving economic data on the economy and Americans could again go back to paying a premium even for regular.
“This may not be the end of the line,” De Haan said. “We could see prices go back up. We’re not in the clear just yet.”