Gas prices tumble below $4 for the first time in months
- Thursday - 11/08/2022 06:18
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The release of 180 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has also helped bump up supply.
CNN
London (CNN Business) - Drivers in the United States can breathe a small sigh of relief — average gas prices have dropped below $4 a gallon for the first time since March.
The national average price for regular gasoline fell to $3.99 a gallon on Thursday, according to AAA.Gas prices hit a record high of $5.02 in June as drivers filled their tanks for the summer travel season. They were also pushed higher by soaring global oil prices as the West turned its back on Russian crude in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
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US crude oil prices have also fallen sharply from a peak above $120 a barrel in June to around $92 a barrel on Thursday, helped by an easing of the global supply crunch.
In a report released Thursday, the International Energy Agency revised up its outlook for global oil supply, partly because Russia has continued to pump more oil than expected.
"While Russia's exports of crude and oil products to Europe, the US, Japan and Korea have fallen by nearly 2.2 [million barrels per day] since the start of the war, the rerouting of flows to India, China, Türkiye and others, along with seasonally higher Russian domestic demand has mitigated upstream losses," the Paris-based agency said.
By July, Russian oil production was only 310,000 barrels per day below pre-war levels while total oil exports were down just 580,000 barrels per day, it added.
— Matt Egan contributed reporting.