According to AAA, Florida gas prices are -- slowly -- adjusting to a recent plunge in the price of crude oil.
The state average for a gallon of gas in Florida dropped $3.30 per gallon, after declining 4 cents during the past week. That downward trend is likely to continue this week, unless oil prices suddenly rebound, said AAA-The Auto Club Group spokesperson Mark Jenkins early Monday morning.
"An oil price drop of that magnitude, if sustained, could potentially drive the state average back below $3 a gallon," Jenkins said. "But it won't happen overnight. Florida pump prices are falling at a rate of 1-cent a day. Unless that rate accelerates, it could take a few more weeks before pump prices fully adjust."
Crude oil prices plummeted after Thanksgiving on concerns about how the omicron variant could impact global fuel demand. The price of U.S. crude dropped 13 percent after Thanksgiving and remained down all last week. Friday's closing price of $66.26 per barrel is 15 percent below the price on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It's also 21 percent below the 2021 high of $84.15 per barrel, which was reached about a month ago.
According to AAA the average gas price in Osceola County is $3.31 per gallon, a penny above the state average. It’s $3.29 in Orange County, $3.27 in Polk and as low as $3.19 to our south in Okeechobee County. We’re still playing just over a dollar per gallon more than this time last year, when the county, state and nation were coming out of pandemic-induced lockdowns.
AAA's year-end travel forecast will be released on Tuesday, December 14.
