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...Oil and gas prices continued to tumble Friday, bringing relief to motorists weary of high gas prices.
In Rome, prices were more in line with the national average of $3.35 a gallon and lower than the state average of $3.58.
Click here to find out more about local gas prices.
However, the collapse in oil markets that sent the price of crude oil plunging to below $78 a barrel was yet another reminder of a mushrooming global economic crisis.
Oil hasn’t been this cheap in 13 months — a rare silver lining for consumers amid a rapidly imploding financial landscape. Crude prices have almost been cut in half since surging to nearly $150 per barrel during the summer.
Energy experts say prices could go even lower, some predicting they could fall below $3 a gallon in a matter of weeks.
Local gas prices Friday certainly gave hope of that with
Angelia Justice of Lindale pumps gas at the Kangaroo on U.S. 27 near Georgia Highlands, where the gas was $3.44 Friday morning.(Ken Caruthers/RN-T) |
some as low as $3.30 a gallon for regular ranging up to $3.45.
Read related stories: Will cheap gas mean return to gas-guzzling ways? and Oil plunges to 13-month low on global slowdown
Gas prices during the past two weeks have dropped around 50 cents on average for the price of a gallon of gas, and customers such as Shorter College sophomore Jennifer McKee, who filled her tank at the Kroger gas station on Turner McCall Boulevard Friday afternoon, had reason to be happy.
McKee, who lives in Stockbridge, said prices were back to where she could just about afford them again.
“I’m really happy that prices are back down, especially since I pay for my own gas,” McKee said.
The price drop and return to regularly supplied gas also has local station owners and managers happy after weeks of shortages caused by the shutdown of refineries on the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Crystal Fortune, an employee at Kroger’s gas station, said that business picked back up after the shortage, which she believes could have been avoided.
“If everybody hadn’t panicked around Georgia, it would have been fine,” she said. “But everyone did.”
Fortune said that through the crisis, trucks were coming to Kroger at a normal interval, even though they only had regular for those weeks after the hurricanes.
Five Points Kangaroo station manager Lynn Storey said their business has slowed down after a week of constant customers during the Coosa Valley Fair and finally filling up all of their tanks with all grades of gas, including diesel.
“I’m thrilled to see prices going down, because 75 percent of our business is outside at the pumps,” Storey said.
But Jeff Smith, a consultant helping the Market on Second revitalize its in-store business, said they’re still feeling the effects of the shortage.
“One of our suppliers told us they are back up to full capacity,” Smith said. “But the cost of oil’s been going down since the hurricane. The problem was that the supply of gasoline wasn’t there, so now that it’s back you’re starting to see retail prices going back down.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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