Gas prices drop in U.S. & Texas | Dallas News Live

Well, I know you noticed a little relief at the pump. The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular has dipped below $4 a gallon for the first time since July. Prices are down in Texas, too. Ray Trevino joins us live this afternoon. Ray is an oil and gas executive and an industry expert. Ray, it's great to see you. I want to get right into it. What is driving this dip, even though we're still engaged in a conflict with Iran? Yes, a great question. Right now, what we're seeing is a little bit of what Wall Street would call certainty. As we've discussed in the past, Wall Street is thinking right now that this president is going to be ending this conflict with Iran on a daily basis right now. They feel that with. The tone in America that this president will stop it. So we are seeing a little bit more calm in the market and a little bit more certainty on their end. However, I don't see this conflict ending anytime soon. Yeah, something that certainly doesn't happen overnight. And as you point out, there's a bit of a trickle down effect. So traders are seeing more oil reaching the market, or is it the betting that supplies will improve? You know, that's a good question. And right now, it's really just the betting that... The markets are going to subside and everything's going to be a more calm area. The amount of oil that's moving out of the United States to our allies and the amount of oil that's moving to the United States from our allies is just as high as it was before the election. What we're seeing right now is the market's reaction to the elections and their thoughts on what's going to happen here over the next 30 days. Or 45 days on their futures. The Strait of Hormuz has continued to be open. As we know, just the other day, there was another bombing in the Strait of Hormuz. And as you've mentioned, the prices only continue to drop. As we trade and just talk right now, we're at about $85, $86 a barrel. And I do expect us to stay there and maybe even see another little bump. But this is a nice reprieve at the pump. And we do hope that the cost to get a barrel of oil from overseas to the refineries here will go down in the near future as well. Let's talk about the switch to the winter blend gasoline. How much of an impact does that have? And would you say that there are fewer people out on the roads because it's just been so darn expensive to put fuel and some people just can't afford it? You know, that's a great question. And this year, I have not seen a dip in the usage of gasoline. Make no doubt about it, we have a very strong economy. And usually the signs of a weak economy are when travel has slowed down. And during this time of year, the average travel is about the same as any other year. Obviously, we did dip in August. But that is also very routine as everybody goes back to school. So we do expect travel to stay, and we expect it to be up here in November and December for holiday travel. I was just getting ready to say, I hate to jump on you there, Ray, but that's what I was going to ask you. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. We're going to be standing out at the airports, out on the roads, talking about how it's the busiest travel season of the year. How much does that impact the price? Could we see it fall further, or is the demand going to slow? Slow any breaking down of those prices. Well, right now our demand that we have only continues to grow because our population is growing by more people moving to United States and obviously our just natural increase in population. But during this holiday season, we will see hundreds of thousand people on the road. And because of that, that's why we will see a uptick in the price of oil over the next couple of weeks as the refineries switch over. To the winter blends in preparation for the colder weather and right now almost all of our 97% of our refineries in America are running at 97% efficiency, you name me another industry that is running that efficient, but that being said, we will see a dip in production and processing of crude oil. into gasoline and diesel while the blends are being switched over so we will see an increase at the pump but when it comes time to actual holiday season I do expect this to be at the prices that we're at now if not a little lower. Ray Trevino an oil and gas expert we always appreciate your expertise thanks for coming on the show today. Thank you for having me.