Gas prices plummet in Fresno, Valley as coronavirus sinks global demand for oil
Diminished demand for gasoline in California and the U.S. has helped to drive the average price of gasoline in Fresno to below $3 per gallon for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years.
The average price per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline on Monday morning was reported at $2.99 per gallon by AAA Gas Prices. GasBuddy.com, a website and mobile app that allows customers to report pump prices in real time at stations nationwide, reported an even lower average Monday morning, at $2.91 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.
About two weeks ago – just a few days after the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in the central San Joaquin Valley –the average gas price in the Fresno market was $3.27 per gallon. Prices in Fresno, as well as across California and nationwide, have plummeted since peaking at more than $4.12 per gallon in October 2019.
“With Americans urged to stay at home and practice social distancing to slow the spread of coronavirus, we are seeing less traffic on the roadways which will ultimately drive down demand, increase gasoline supply and push pump prices less expensive for the foreseeable future,” Jeanette Casselano, a AAA spokeswoman, said Monday.
“Typically gas prices start to trend more expensive at the beginning of spring, especially as motorists get out to enjoy the warmer weather and travel for spring break,” she added. “That is not the case this year.”
The last time that the average price was under $3 per gallon in the Fresno market was October 2018, according to data from GasBuddy.
The cheapest gas price noted Monday on GasBuddy’s fuel-finding app in the Fresno-Clovis market was $2.35 per gallon for regular unleaded at a 76 station near Herndon Avenue and Highway 99 and a pair of Costco membership stores – one on North Blackstone Avenue in north Fresno and another on West Shaw Avenue in northwest Fresno.
Worldwide, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on global demand for crude oil is adding to the inability earlier this month of major oil-exporting nations including OPEC member nations and Russia to come to terms on an agreement to cut production, according to an analysis by GasBuddy.com.
“Gas prices have spent virtually all of March marching lower, with the drop continuing as the coronavirus destroys oil demand globally,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, “leading to the lowest oil prices we’ve seen in 18 years, paving the way for still an additional 35- to 75-cent-per-gallon drop at most stations in the weeks ahead.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a collapse in prices, even including the Great Recession” of 2007-2009,” DeHaan added. “What we’re witnessing is easily going to go down as the great collapse in oil demand.”
Both DeHaan and Casselano cautioned drivers against rushing to fill up their tanks now because prices will continue to drop. “Gas stations are passing along the (price) drop several weeks behind, and there’s plenty more room for price to drop, putting 99-cents-per-gallon prices as a strong possibility (as a national average) for perhaps many more stations than we previously anticipated nationwide,” DeHaan said. “This is truly an unprecedented turn of events.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
