Gas prices expected to dip sharply in October

Though crude oil prices have hit their lowest level in six years, you might not be saving a lot when you gas up the car.

Tom Kloza,  the head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall Township, New Jersey, said the gasoline supply is still very tight.

“There’s been a surge in demand with more people driving and using more fuel,” he said. “So we operate on just-in-time inventories, and when you have a couple of refinery events — we’ve had one in Philadelphia recently — you will see prices maintain their strength.”

The cost of gasoline will move much lower when the summer driving season ends, Kloza predicted.

“Between now and Sept. 15, I wouldn’t be surprised to see prices lob a little bit higher or lower. The real change comes in the last hundred days of the year,” he said. “We’ll see the lowest prices that we saw since last January, which is to say a lot of price points will be below $2.”

Lower crude oil prices could mean homeowners will save money on their heating bills this winter.

Kloza said heating oil prices might be the lowest since the middle of the Great Recession.

“Whereas in some of the previous winters we saw prices in the $4 neighborhood, we may be looking at $2.50 a gallon,” he said. “And, maybe if it’s an El Niño year, we won’t have that may degree days to suck up some of that fuel.”