Consumers will benefit
By JOSH RESNEK
The near to complete collapse of the price for a barrel of West Texas crude oil Monday will ultimately lead to the lowest cost per gallon heating oil for Everett consumers since the early 1980’s.
Also, the price for gasoline is going to plummet after already dropping dramatically during the past four weeks.
If nothing else, the shut- down of the American economy because of the coronavirus pandemic has cut demand so deeply for oil and gasoline, is something to marvel at.
Home heating oil is expected to cost Everett consumers about $1 a gallon when all is said and done in the weeks to come.
Gasoline per gallon is going to fall below $1 a gallon in the next few weeks.
Both heating oil and gasoline are expected to drop even lower through June, as industry experts say demand will continue falling with nowhere to put the world’s excess production of oil.
If you are a homeowner still heating with oil, a 200 gallon tank will cost about $200 very shortly – of course – the heating season will be over and the price will dip even lower because demand falls during the warmer months.
Compare that price to home heating oil prices last year.
At the high the price was $3.50 a gallon. At the low, it was $2.39.
This year, home heating oil prices went lower to a high of $2.50 a gallon to a low of $1.40 this week.
Gasoline sales have plunged around the world, not just in America.
Gasoline prices in Everett this week remain unusually high with some retailers on the Revere Beach Parkway who are charging $2.25 a gallon when the real price should be nearer to about $1.60 a gallon.
At higher priced stations and at lower priced stations the situation is the same – not many people are filling up their automobiles and taking a long ride somewhere.
Most people aren’t driving to work everyday.
Gasoline consumption resembles the national economy and serves as a thermometer for it.
When prices are higher, demand pushes the price upward.
When demand collapses, as it has done during this epidemic, the price collapses with it.
Bottom line, cheap heating oil is good.
Low gasoline prices are to enjoy.
But they come at the cost of about 22 million Americans unemployed, the national economy shut down and in a state of early collapse.