COVID19 Cases Continue To Pull Oil Investors In Multiple Directions

Oil prices have been in a holding pattern, for weeks. According to Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy, a barrel of oil has held steady around $42 for the past seven weeks. And he blames the lack of movement on the back and forth nature of COVID-19 in the U.S.

“The trends for new coronavirus cases, continue to improve and I think for now at least, that’s providing for a little bit of the optimism in the oil markets, where as the pessimism is coming from kind of the unknown of whether or not demand for gasoline will fall this autumn as it tends to do.”

DeHaan added he does not anticipate a lot of movement in the coming weeks with most kids starting the school year at home, which will limit fuel demand nationwide. Because of the seesaw nature of oil prices, diesel prices haven’t moved much this week, with the national average holding steady at $2.42, Washington’s average holding at $2.72, and Idaho’s was unchanged at $2.35 a gallon. The only diesel price that moved was Oregon’s which slipped one penny to $2.61.

How has that impacted what we're paying at the local station? Here are some of the lowest diesel prices we could find across the Northwest: