NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — So far, despite the turmoil in Gaza, gas prices continue what used to be a typical seasonal decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Fall and Winter are typically a time when we start to see demand for gas falling and also the prices of gas falling," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas. "We've been seeing that over the past more than a month or so."
The national average is down more than eight cents from a week ago. The Kansas average, which is $3.26 a gallon as of Thursday, is down more than nine cents from a week ago.
"We've been seeing a nice decline," Steward said. "It's not so painful when we go to fill up our tanks at the pumps these days. We've certainly been watching the situation with Israel and the surrounding possibilities of expansion of that crisis, but so far, we really haven't seen any kind of an impact in terms of the global crude market."
Area county prices are on either side of the state average.
Reno - $3.23
McPherson - $3.05
Harvey - $3.23
Sedgwick - $3.33
Kingman - $3.41
Pratt - $3.37
Stafford - $3.40
Rice - $3.41
"Crude oil is the biggest factor in what we see in terms of a price of a gallon of gas at the pumps," Steward said. "Demand is certainly a big issue. Like I said, this is typically a time of year where we start to see demand decrease. Summer vacations are over, just fewer people driving in general when the cold months happen and especially when winter weather starts to hit."
WTI Crude was just over $81 a barrel as of Thursday morning.
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