Crude Oil Settles Down

From AAA East Central, East Penn Region:

According to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report, crude oil traded lower yesterday, as global equities markets declined and the U.S. dollar strengthened slightly.

At the close of yesterday’s formal trading on the NYMEX, crude oil settled down 42 cents at $86.38 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude oil began last week settling at $85.41, an increase of $9.74 or nearly 13 percent in less than a week.

This surge in prices was attributed to optimism surrounding the euro zone debt crisis, decreased domestic crude oil and gasoline inventories, and weakness in the U.S. dollar.

Putting a damper on global optimism, the International Energy Agency on Wednesday revised downward their economic growth forecasts for 2011 and 2012 and subsequently for global oil demand. This report reaffirmed similar predications by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The current national average retail price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is $3.469 down 12.4 cents from last month.

In Pennsylvania, today’s average price of self-serve gasoline is $3.506 down 11.4 cents from a month ago and 63.7 cents higher than a year ago.

In the Philadelphia market, the average price for self-serve regular unleaded gasoline is $3.519 per gallon. That is 13.9 cents lower than a month ago and 64 cents higher than a year ago. 

As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 52 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers.