Chattanooga motorists preparing to travel for the holiday weekend ahead are enjoying the cheapest gas prices so far this year after prices at the pump fell another 3.8 cents per gallon last week to $1.90 per gallon, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 170 gas outlets in Chattanooga.
Chattanooga gas prices are 12 cents cheaper than a month ago and are at the lowest price for the start of summer since 2005. Chattanooga prices are 9 cents per gallon below the Tennessee average of $1.99 per gallon and are 35 cents per gallon less than the U.S. average of $2.25 per gallon, GasBuddy.com said in a report today.
"As motorists pack their cars in preparation for the July 4 holiday, gasoline prices continue their widespread drop," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. "The downward momentum has continued and may do so again this week, so long as there's no sudden reversal in the price of crude oil. It's amazing we're staring at some of the cheapest prices of the year as the holiday comes into view."
For this date, gas prices in Chattanooga are 12 cents per gallon below a year ago, 58 cents per gallon cheaper than two years ago and $1.50 a gallon below what local motorist paid for fuel three years ago.
Gas prices still remain above the recent all-time low price reached in February 2016 when Chattanooga fuel prices fell briefly to an average of $1.44 per gallon.
The month-long drop in gas prices may soon ease, or even be reversed, as oil prices trended higher this morning, however.
Oil prices rose more than 1 percent early Monday on a weaker dollar, but another rise in U.S. drilling activity suggest that a global supply glut will persist.
Brent crude futures were up 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $46.04 per barrel early today. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 44 cents, or 1 percent, at $43.45 per barrel in trading this morning.
Analysts told Reuters that prices may have risen as investors covered short positions.
"It is just the fact that the oil market stopped falling... I suspect short covering," Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, Australia, told Reuters today.