The Good News and Bad News About Lower Gas Prices

If you’ve filled the gas tank lately, you’ve noticed a big drop in pump prices.

The unleaded regular average around DFW right now is $2.73 per gallon, according to AAA Texas. That compares to about $3.50 per gallon earlier in the year.

Drivers filling up at the Quick Trip station on Beltline Road in Irving Wednesday paid $2.66 per gallon.

“Cheap gas, cheap gas. Yes, that’s great,” driver Patricia Jones said.

Lower prices leave customers with money to spend other ways.

“It helps me keep my car a little cleaner, too,” said driver Steven Lamb. “I fill it up with higher grade octane at a price I’m used to paying for 87.”

But driver Robert Thorne worried as he pumped the cheaper gas. He works for oil and gas service company Halliburton at the firm’s big Carrollton facility.

“It’s a double edged sword. Cheap gas is not any good if you lose your job over it,” Thorne said. “I don’t like being unemployed. It was hard to find the last job I got because of the recession.”

It is a legitimate concern according to Oil and Gas expert Bernard Weinstein at the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business Maguire Energy Institute.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people in DFW who work in the oil and gas industry, so sure, we need to be concerned about what’s happening to oil prices,” he said.

Weinstein said oil and gas now accounts for 8 percent of the U.S. economy compared with just 2 percent 10 years ago.

“So what happens in the oil and gas sector has a much bigger impact on our national economic wellbeing than it did in the past,” he said.

Weinstein said North America now leads the world in oil and gas production, but supply is outpacing demand with economies overseas slowing down, which explains the falling prices.

Middle Eastern nations in the Organization of Petroleum Export Countries (OPEC) are smaller players today, Weinstein said.

“OPEC has essentially become irrelevant. We are the important producer today,” he said.

Oil is now produced for around $80 a barrel which provides savings for customers.

“At today’s prices, the whole country is a net winner and we’re not hurting in the state of Texas. If prices get down to $70, it’s a different story,” Weinstein said. “Then you will see a pullback in drilling and you will see layoffs in the oil and gas industry.”

Weinstein expects oil prices to level off about where they are to avoid big job cuts, but he said the situation is fluid.

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