Drivers Head Into Summer With a Gift at the Gas Pump

HOUSTON — Looking for an excuse to pack up the car for a road trip this weekend? Look no further: The average nationwide gasoline price on Friday was the lowest for this point of the year since 2005, according to GasBuddy, a website and smartphone app designed to help drivers find the best deals at the pump.

The immediate cause of the price break was the shock to global oil markets that came when the Energy Department reported this week that domestic inventories of both crude oil and gasoline had surprisingly surged the week before despite heavy driving on the Memorial Day weekend.

Crude oil prices plummeted by more than 5 percent on Wednesday alone, and are near a one-year low at less than $46 a barrel. The national average of the price of gas is lower than it was at the same time last year, but the price varies widely across the country.

This has been all the more remarkable given that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has imposed a production cut since the start of the year, and Saudi Arabia and its allies cut off relations with Qatar this week, threatening the kind of heightened tensions in the Middle East that normally push energy prices higher.

Read more at The New York Times