Holiday travelers can count on plenty of gas

 The average price for a gallon of gas in New Jersey is about $2.60.(Phil Gregory/WHYY)

The average price for a gallon of gas in New Jersey is about $2.60.(Phil Gregory/WHYY)

A lot of people will be making a road trip over the long Independence Day weekend.

Despite the increased demand for gasoline, a plentiful supply will keep the price from rising.

Tom Kloza, leads energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, New Jersey, said the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the Garden State is about $2.60. Drivers around Wilmington, Delaware, are paying $2.68 a gallon, while prices are averaging about $2.89 in the Philadelphia area. 

“Considerably higher than it was in the first quarter, but considerably lower than it was last year … 80 to 90 cents can be saved,” he said. “If you eliminate the recession year of 2009, this is the best Fourth of July pricing in about 10 years.”

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You might not see prices move much lower in the next few weeks, but Kloza said they could drop to about $2 a gallon in New Jersey later this year.

“The reason is that the gasoline recipe changes on Sept. 15, and there’s a lot of cheap stuff that can be put in gasoline. This natural gas boom is throwing out things like butane that we might associate with lighters but gets blended into gasoline in September,” he said. “It can’t be used in the summer.”

And Kloza said it won’t be just gasoline that will cost less.

“We’ve got the highest crude oil stocks ever. We’ve come down from those a little bit in the last couple of months, but in the fall and the winter next year, we’ll build probably to the highest level again,” he said. “I do think it means that we’re going into a winter with lower heating costs, whether it be oil, propane, or even natural gas.”

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