Crude oil for November delivery reached expiration on Tuesday, and dropped as much as $4.25/barrel or 5.7% to an intraday low of $70/barrel, and closed at $70.89/barrel, tumbling more than 50% from its market peak in July. Crude which closed below $70/barrel on 10/16 at $69.85/barrel faces pressure from a slowdown in global oil demand. Also a possible drawback in crude production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Friday's October 24th emergency meeting may trigger even lower crude prices, as crude edges closer to a psychological level of $60/barrel.
Consequently, the last time crude oil closed below $60/barrel was on 3/21/2007 when the national average price for regular gasoline was at a monthly average price $2.592/gallon, as per the Energy Information Administrations’ (EIA) historic monthly data report. As of Tuesday, AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge reported that the current national average price of unleaded, regular gasoline is at $2.889/gallon, up slightly 7 cents/gallon or 2.48% from what the national gas price was a year ago. Thus if history repeats itself, we should see a further break in gas prices. See below for historic monthly U.S. average prices of retail gasoline and crude oil as per EIA when crude maintained a montly trading range between $60-$75/barrel.
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