(NEXSTAR) — After gas prices hit a yearly high earlier this month, motorists could finally see some relief at the pumps.
“If you don’t need gas, wait!, Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, tweeted Friday, as oil prices continued trending down.
The price of oil is 10% lower than it was not even two weeks ago, De Haan told Nexstar. He expects the trend to continue for at least a couple of weeks.
As of Friday afternoon, the average price of gasoline at the pump was $3.41, down just slightly from the highest year-to-date price of $3.44 seen Nov. 10. De Haan said he is hopeful that the price won’t hit those high levels again before the end of the year.
“We have potentially now seen the peak in price,” he said.
One likely factor impacting the price at the pump could be the rising COVID-19 cases in Europe that have led to more lockdowns, De Haan said, noting that when large amounts of people are on lockdown, the demand for fuel greatly decreases.
He also pointed to President Joe Biden’s continued talks of opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve potentially affecting the oil markets.
According to De Haan, there are too many factors to pinpoint an exact cause for the decline; however, he said one thing is certain: “oil is clearly struggling.”
If current oil prices hold or continue to go down, De Haan said he expects the decrease at the pump to gain momentum in the next 2 to 5 days, with prices going down anywhere from 15 to 30 cents per gallon.
De Haan said he doesn’t anticipate Thanksgiving travel having any impact on prices.
