Gas Prices Drop to $2 in Some Parts of US

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 11:38AM EST · Published May 26, 5:26AM EDT

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Gas Prices Drop to $2 in Some Parts of US — © Thinkstock

In several states, gasoline prices have dropped close to $2 for an average gallon of regular. And in some areas of these states, the price is already below that level.

The price of gas in South Carolina has dropped to $2. In three states, it is below $2.10: Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma are all at $2.09,

Prices in three places in South Carolina are at $2 or slightly below. The price is $1.99 in Spartanburg, and $2 in Greenville and Columbia. In most of these cities prices have been flat recently, according to GasBuddy.

Based on GasBuddy’s analysis of individual locations in these cities, some have gas prices as low at $1.80, and a number have prices well below $1.90.

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The primary component of gas prices is oil, and the price of oil has hovered around $50 a barrel recently. Depending on news about OPEC plans on production and U.S. shale production levels, oil prices have fluctuated quickly over the past several weeks. Oil has traded below $46 in the past month, and as high as $51.47. It currently trades just below $49.

Forecasts of future oil prices have varied widely. Some predictions are for crude to drop as low as $20 if OPEC and certain large non-OPEC producers sharply increase production. However, OPEC recently said it would extend current production limits. The World Bank has forecast oil to reach above $60 a barrel in 2018. This is based on a prediction that OPEC eventually will cut production levels.

Among the other primary contributors to gas prices are state taxes and levies. The federal excise tax is $0.184 cents per gallon. The average state gas tax is $0.495. South Carolina’s tax is the second lowest in the country at $0.315. Most states have kept gas taxes flat for years.

If U.S. shale production continues to spike, and OPEC increases production even slightly, gas likely will drop below $2 a gallon in a large number of other areas across the United States.

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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.