Good news for summer vacationers!
Gas prices promise to stay low through the coming warm-weather season as a global glut of oil continues.
The current national average price for a gallon of regular gas is $2.37, up just pennies from $2.31 a year ago, according to AAA.
The bright outlook for wandering US motorists is thanks to oil prices, which slipped further on Friday following an OPEC-led decision to extend current production curbs that investors gauged did not go far enough to reduce a global supply glut.
At Thursday’s meeting in Vienna, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-OPEC producers agreed to extend a pledge to cut around 1.8 million barrels per day of output until the end of the first quarter of 2018. The initial agreement would have expired next month.
Producers have expressed confidence that this plan will bring down crude oil stocks to their five-year average of 2.7 billion barrels — but the market had hoped for a last-minute agreement on more far-reaching action.
Crude prices tumbled 5 percent following the decision Thursday and extended losses on Friday.
“Expectations had become so high that the mere extension of the status quo by nine months resulted in disappointment,” said analysts at Commerzbank.