With school starting back, commuter students will be making the daily trek to classes. Lucky for them, this holiday season has been grateful to commuters.
Gas prices are at the lowest they have been since April 2009 according to the Lundberg survey. All around the Greater Memphis area you can find gas prices as high as $2 in some places and as low as $1.78 in other places. In fact, the national gas price average has fallen a record 102 days down to $2.20 according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
There are several reasons for gas prices being so low since its peak in June at $105 a barrel. Some say the natural gas supply in the United States is higher than its demand.
Since 2008, the U.S. has increased its domestic supply by 50 percent. This is made possible by technologies made in America like hydraulic fracturing - the forcing open of fissures in subterranean rocks by introducing liquid at high pressure, especially to extract oil or gas – and horizontal drilling - is a drilling process in which the well is turned horizontally at depth. It is normally used to extract energy from a source that runs horizontally, such as a layer of shale rock.
Because of this “shale oil and gas revolution” the US has become the number one producer of natural gas while oil production in states in the Midwest has nearly doubled in the past six years.
Others are saying it’s because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, is dissolving and losing their grip on the world market. This has turned the sale of natural gas into a free market, bringing the prices lower than the fixed price that OPEC had set up.
Because of this gas revolution in the U.S. and politics in the Middle East, commuter students will be able to experience the joys of spending less cash than usual to help pay for their commute.
“I have to travel from Collierville all the way to campus for school,” said Lauren Cedotal, a sophomore nursing major at the University of Memphis. “This trip takes about 30 minutes and puts a dent in my wallet when I have to travel like this five days a week. I have been very happy with these low gas prices because it is very hard to have to pay for school and gas at the same time.”
According to experts from around the country, gas prices will continue to drop in 2015.
Due to the gas revolution that the U.S. is experiencing, the supply will continue to stay higher than its demand because the amount of natural gas that is being pumped is abundant.
The Gulf of Mexico, home to some of the most promising oil fields in the world, has also not experienced any bad weather this hurricane season. This has given the refineries in the gulf less to worry about.
Winter gasoline is also cheaper than summer gasoline because the government allows oil refineries to make gasoline with cheaper hydrocarbons like butane starting every September that lasts through to the spring.
A full wallet equals a happy consumer. With gas prices like these, commuters all around the Greater Memphis area will be happy.
