Even as OPEC meets in Vienna to try to prop up oil prices, San Antonians are getting a big time early Christmas gift at the gas pump, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The average price of gas in San Antonio today is $2.04 a gallon, down a full dime just in the past week and down 40 cents since the summer. In fact, this is the first time in 18 months that San Antonio gas prices are lower than they were one year ago.
Gas stations selling gas for less than $2 are all over the city, and some stations have gone as low as $1.79.
“Cheap crude oil prices are driving prices down at the pump,” said Joshua Zuber, AAA Texas/AAA New Mexico spokesperson. “Last week, crude dropped to its lowest point of the year at $50 a barrel. However, today’s Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting could cause crude oil prices to jump if the organization decides to reduce crude production.”
But analysts say OPEC no longer has the juice to cause production to fall so much that prices will skyrocket.
Economist Tom Tunstall of UTSA says OPEC can't raise prices up to much more than $70 a barrel from the current $55 and OPEC doesn't dare cut production too much, because that will cut into the only real source of revenue for the governments of most OPEC nations, endangering their budgets and vital social serves programs.