Lenny Masters was a bit surprised when the gas pump handle clicked Sunday afternoon, and the display showed a total of $44 and change.
“Normally, it’s $50 or more,” he said after filling up his Audi. “Prices are falling; even a few dollars savings helps.”
A few steps from Masters, Pat Brooks topped off her Nissan Altima’s tank, putting in $35.84 of regular unleaded at $3.62 a gallon. “It’s still too much, but better than it was a month ago,” Brooks told The Dallas Express.
Like Masters and Brooks, North Texas motorists are glad gas prices are inching down. The half dozen motorist interviewed by The Dallas Express at an Exxon gas station off Spring Valley Road in North Dallas all agreed that falling gas prices are a welcome sight. Still, they expressed frustration with price increases on daily staples from peanut butter to toilet paper.
“I saved $12 a visit,” said Miguel Sandavol after filling his Escalade. However, the father of three said $12 is “chump change” compared to the hikes in his Kroger bill.
On Sunday, Gasbuddy.com reported the cheapest place in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for regular unleaded was Sam’s Club in Fort Worth at $3.31. The highest was well above $4 per gallon, $4.21 at a Texaco in Carrolton. The average for a gallon of regular unleaded in the Dallas area Sunday was $3.61, compared to the national average of $4.18.
Last month, Gasbuddy.com reported that the average price in Dallas was $4.53 per gallon of unleaded. Nationwide, the average was a wallet-strangling $4.85.
The price decreases come even as crude production remains tight. September 2022 futures of WTI, the U.S. benchmark, sat at $98.62 on Sunday, down from a March 2022 high of more than $120 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventory sat at 422 million barrels last week, down 4.5 million from the week before. By comparison, this time last year, inventory sat at 435.6 million barrels.