Americans Can Expect Lower Gas Prices in 2024

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 29, 6:44AM EST

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Americans Can Expect Lower Gas Prices in 2024 — © PamWalker68 / iStock via Getty Images

Gasoline prices fell sharply in the second half of 2023. GasBuddy expects more of the same next year. Its experts forecast the price of a gallon of regular will average $3.38 nationwide in 2024, down from $3.51 in 2023.

The drop will not be uniform. The price will be lower at about $3 in the next two or three months. Winter demand for gas is expected to be low. Crude prices are near their 52-week low price of $72 a barrel. Oil continues to be the largest component of gasoline prices by far. Demand for gas is expected to rise in summer as more people drive. It could move up close to $4 nationwide in the warmer months. (See the price of gasoline through the decades.)

GasBuddy experts do not expect prices to be near the levels they hit when crude was $100 over a year ago. Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s petroleum analysis head, commented, “As 2023 fades away, I’m hopeful those $5 and $6 prices for gasoline and diesel will also fade into memory.” However, prices in several states, particularly California, will stay near those levels. This is partly because the state’s gas taxes are among the highest in America.

Oil prices have been helped by rising U.S. production, which, to some extent, is because of increased fracking, a relatively new way to drill for crude. OPEC+ recently cut production. So far, the U.S. production has more than offset that move.

GasBuddy’s 2024 Fuel Outlook does not say much about the big risks to oil prices. As has been the case for decades, geopolitical issues, particularly in the Middle East, can cut supply. If that happens, gasoline prices could rise again swiftly.

For now, GasBuddy expects a quiet year for oil and, thus, the same for gas.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.