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Florida gas prices expected to fall as coronavirus spreads

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Gas hasn’t been this cheap in Florida since February 2019. According to AAA, the state average on Monday is $2.28 per gallon. Action News Jax found some local gas stations had it as cheap as $2.02 on the Southside.

The coronavirus outbreak and disagreements between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have caused oil prices to significantly drop Monday, leading to a major drop in global gas prices. AAA spokesperson Mark Jenkins said its an issue of supply and demand.

“China’s demand for fuel has declined significantly since the coronavirus has begun to spread. As a result of that, crude oil has lost more than 30% of its value,” Jenkins said. “Just overnight we saw significant declines. The price of crude oil is around $30-33 dollars, which we haven’t seen in about four years. So dips of that magnitude can trigger really significant declines at the pump.”

Over the weekend, OPEC members met to discuss the falling oil prices. Some experts suggest the possibility of an “oil price war”.

“Overnight, we saw prices tumble because we saw Saudi Arabia is going to ramp up their output of oil and Russia evidentially going to do the same,” Jenkins said. “So instead of there being less supply out there on the market because of the lower demand there’s actually going to be more supply out there.”

Jenkins believes gas prices will continue to drop to two dollars or less in the coming weeks.

“I think gas prices will continued to be steered by crude oil and gasoline futures prices,” he said. “So whatever happens on the stock market you’ll typically see reciprocated on the pump.”