The lowest price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline dropped to $3.87 on Sunday in Connecticut, according to user-generated data at GasBuddy.com.
That price was available Sunday at three locations:
- RoadRunners Citgo, 17 Windsor Ave., Windsor;
- FL Roberts, 140 Weston St., Hartford, and;
- Sun Mart, 104 Main St., Willimantic.
The priciest gallon of gas in Connecticut on Sunday was in Wilton, according to GasBuddy users: $4.99 at the Shell station at 912 Danbury Road.
Earlier this month, Amy Parmenter, a spokesperson for AAA Greater Hartford, said that there was still plenty of room for the price to continue moving downward, and that AAA was predicting that it would do so provided that there are no new geopolitical disruptions or weather events, such as a hurricane that shuts down American refineries on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
How Did We Get Here?
Crude oil prices jumped following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Crude Oil WTI was $92.81 per barrel on Feb. 24, according to various tracking services, but by March 8 it had raced up to $123.70 before a bumpy but generally downward ride to $99.76 on May 10.
But on May 10, with the Russian invasion still well underway, the European Union announced that it would ban Russian oil exports within the next six months. Russia provides about 10% of the world’s crude oil, so the EU’s announcement sent the price of crude oil back up, peaking at $122.11 on June 8.
The price has since dropped to $95.09 per barrel at the market’s close on Friday, July 22.
During that period, gasoline prices spiked around the world, including a new record average price per gallon here in the US of $5.016 on June 14. Connecticut’s average on the same date was also the highest ever at $4.984.
However, demand for gasoline in the US has been dropping off, accelerating the decrease in gas prices. Last week, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline fell by eight cents to $4.44. Connecticut’s average price today is $4.395 per gallon.
