Gas $3.99 Or Less A Gallon? GasBuddy Has Found Thousands of Gas Stations Doing This (For Now)

On Thursday, 2,535 gas stations in the U.S. were pricing $3.99 or less a gallon, according to GasBuddy, the most popular crowdsourced app that tracks real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

What Happened: However, relief at the pump might not survive long as gasoline futures bounced back today, increasing by more than 7% after rising by 11% over the previous five trading sessions.

While prices decreased this morning, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, cautioned that after today’s sharp increase in oil prices, the national average might rise back to above $4.50.

The national average is down another 2.1c/gal since midnight to $4.739/gal- its possible we could eclipse the previous record drop of 3.1c/gal today, but due to oil's surge today, we likely will not see as much relief as we could have. We could head to $4.50/gal nationally.— Patrick De Haan �📊 (@GasBuddyGuy) July 7, 2022

Tuesday marked the first time since mid-May that West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, fell below $100 per barrel. WTI reclaimed the $100 level intraday Thursday, trading 5.41% higher to $103.86 — while Brent Crude Oil surged 4.97% to $105.66 in the same time frame.

Gasoline futures traded in tandem with the oil benchmarks, pushing 7.16% higher to $3.46.

Why It Matters: President Joe Biden recently urged the U.S. Congress to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax while calling for gas station owners to lower the price at the pump to reflect what they pay.

Wall Street analysts are still divided on the inevitable decline in oil prices. While Citigroup Inc C analysts predicted Tuesday that petroleum might fall to $65 per barrel this year if there is a recession, JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM holds a bullish $380 per barrel scenario.

Analysts aside, a hurricane or any problems with the refining process, given that refineries are currently operating at near capacity, are further variables that might cause gas prices to return to historical levels.