Coronavirus Being Blamed For Oil Price Drop

Thanks to the spread of, and the fear of the coronavirus, oil prices have dropped considerably in the past week. Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com says that fear has pushed prices to lows not reported for months. West Texas Crude was down to $49 per barrel Monday morning. DeHaan said fears over coronavirus have brought the 2^nd largest economy to a virtual standstill.

“Planes are not flying in China, nor are they flying to china, so you have perhaps thousands of flight canceled, transportation networks halted, people are staying home in China, and the fears are trickling over in to other countries. Here in the U.S., demand is eroding slightly, as nervous motorist stay closer to home, and that’s really the implication here, is this is entirely demand base.”

DeHaan said those lower diesel prices are being felt when it comes to area diesel prices. The National average for a gallon of diesel slipped three cents this week to $2.94, Washington average dropped three cents to $3.31, Oregon’s diesel prices decreased four cents in the past week to $3.20 a gallon, and Idaho’s average came in at $3.15 a gallon, a decrease of four cents.

As far as the lowest diesel prices we could find across the Inland Northwest: