In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, some businesspeople are tying up loose ends before taking some time off to enjoy the Christmas season; others are planning to skip town earlier; some businesspeople are continuing with work as usual. Regardless of how the last couple weeks of December are spent, people from all three groups are affected by gas prices and may wonder where things are headed. 

In November, just prior to Thanksgiving, Greater Fayetteville Business Journal reported on President Biden’s announcement that 50 million barrels of oil were being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in hopes of countering the surging gas and oil prices. 

With the holiday approaching, can travelers expect that the trend of lower gas prices will continue? 

GasBuddy says there’s a possibility, as gas prices have fallen for the fifth week consecutively. 

“With the price of crude oil remaining some $13 per barrel below its 2021 peak, we have continued to see gas prices decline in nearly every city coast to coast, a trend that will likely continue into yet another week,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.

 “Omicron concerns continue to be the primary catalyst for the drop in gas prices across much of the country,” he said. “While we’ve seen some anecdotal reports about the new variant, vaccine producers have yet to definitively state if current vaccines will still bring adequate protection against omicron- something that might be critical to limit severity and to avoid new shutdowns. With OPEC+ members still planning to boost oil production in January, we continue to see global oil production slowly rising. In addition, U.S. gasoline demand last week fell to the lowest level since October, which may limit oil’s recent rebound and keep gas prices declining through the end of the year.”

Although prices are continuing to decrease, the nationwide average at $3.25 per gallon is only a penny less than Christmas Day in 2013 at $3.26 per gallon on average – the highest cost to fill up a tank on record. However, with the prices continuing to go down, GasBuddy predicts that the price will drop more by Christmas. 

“We got a Christmas gift that few should complain about: falling gas prices at a time of year when millions of Americans are spending their hard-earned dollars on gifts for their loved ones. The last thing they should have to worry about is expensive gasoline,” said De Haan said. "GasBuddy. “While we might scrape by a razor under 2013’s tally of $3.25/gal on Christmas, the good news is prices should continue to moderate heading into the last moments of 2021. As for what’s coming in 2022, GasBuddy plans to release its annual Fuel Outlook in the days ahead so motorists can plan for the coming year.”