Analyst: Hurricane Dorian not expected to impact gas prices

Gas prices have continued to fall locally and across the nation, and they are expected to continue falling with the switch to cheaper winter gasoline and plummeting demand, an industry analyst says.

“While a China/U.S. trade deal could undermine the normal seasonal decline in prices that we anticipate, its still nearly guaranteed that average gas prices in nearly every state will stand lower on Thanksgiving and Christmas versus where we stand today, ” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for the price-tracking website GasBuddy. “With the changeover to winter gasoline just two weeks away for a bulk of the country, we believe there will be additional drops in gas prices ahead.”

Hurricane Dorian is not expected to affect prices, he said.

“Not all hurricanes impact prices — in fact, few truly leave a mark, the last being Hurricane Harvey in 2017 which impressively knocked out a third of all U.S. refining capacity,” he said. “The number of refineries seeing such impacts for Dorian will likely be zero, and that makes all the difference.”

In the Pittsburgh region, prices are down 2.9 cents per gallon in the past week to an average of $2.78 per gallon, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 731 stations. That’s 15 cents per gallon less than a month ago, and 32.5 cents per gallon less than a year ago.

The national average is down 1.9 cents per gallon in the last week to an average of $2.56 per gallon. That’s 14.6 cents per gallon less than a month ago, and 26.1 cents per gallon less than a year ago, according to GasBuddy.