Oil Prices Drop Following Stock Market Turbulence

This is typically the time of year oil prices and fuel prices move higher, in anticipation of the summer drive season. However, that is not the case across the region. Marie Dodds with AAA told the Washington Ag Network fuel prices for most of the Northwest are holding after weeks steady increases from Christmas Day.

“So our prediction continues to be that 2018 will likely be a year where fuel prices are more expensive than they were the last couple of years. But at this point it doesn’t look like we’re going to be paying as much as we were back in the 2010-2014 range.”

While prices have dropped over the past week, Dodds does not see this pattern continuing throughout the year.

“We’ve seen gas and diesel prices increase earlier than usual this year because of the crude oil prices and now that crude is falling a bit we may be a little breather where gas and oil prices hold steady or even decrease just a little bit before they start that spring and summer run up.”

AAA said the national average for a gallon of diesel held steady this week at $2.99, and Oregon’s held at $3.08 a gallon, while Washington’s rate decreased slightly to $3.19 a gallon. Here are some of the lowest prices we could find across the Inland Northwest: