Last month, gas prices in Dallas were down 12% from a year ago, but they were up from January.
In the Dallas area, gas averaged $2.99 per gallon, while in the same month in 2022, average fuel costs were $3.38, according to Gas Buddy, a tech company specialized in tracking real-time fuel prices.
In 2022, gas prices in Dallas hit a record high in June, averaging around $4.84 per gallon, according to AAA.
West Texas Intermediate crude price per barrel hit $76 in late February, down from $114 per barrel in June 2022, when prices were at record high levels in the city.
“The cost for oil accounts for 55% of what we pay at the pump,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross explained in a recent news release, “so higher or lower oil costs will play a major role in the price we pay when fuel-ing up.”
Dallas gas prices are still below the national average of $3.40 per gallon, which was down 6% year-over-year in February, according to Axios Dallas.
With a statewide average of $2.906 per gallon of regular unleaded fuel as of March 1, Texas lays claim to the cheapest gas prices in the country, according to AAA data.
Texas has a 20 cent per gallon gas tax, which ranks 42nd highest in the U.S., according to World Population Review. Pennsylvania tops this list with a gas tax of 59 cents per gallon.
Current average gas prices of $2.79 per gallon in Dallas are lower than the Texas average. Nonetheless, three other Texas metropolitan areas have the cheapest gas in the nation, McAllen, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville, according to CW33.
While prices tend to increase heading into spring break and the school-free summer months, drivers may be cutting back on spending on gas, according to GasBuddy.
“For the weeks ahead, tradition tells us to expect prices to move up eventually, but that could be at least partially offset by inflationary data that continues to be hotter than expected,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said, per CW33.
As The Dallas Express recently reported, January saw national average gas prices increase. Axios noted a further increase of 2% between January and February.
Whether gas prices will remain low as De Haan suggests is thus yet to be seen.
