Gas prices continue to decrease in Mississippi

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – You might’ve been noticing you’re getting more gas for your buck.

Gas prices here in Mississippi haven’t been this cheap in four years.

The last time Mississippi saw a sustained period of gas below $2 per gallon, was in 2004.

Johnny Fair, President of Fair Oil Company in Louisville, said COVID-19 has made an impact on gas prices.

“You seen a lot of prices fall at the pump over the last few weeks obviously because people are staying at home and not driving much,” said Fair. “You know there’s a lot of people that their car probably hadn’t moved much in the last month so that’s had an effect on things.”

And to make matters even more interesting, U.S. oil prices have dropped to negative territory in the trade market this week.

A situation Fair is keeping an eye on.

“The big oil companies that pull oil out of the ground,” said Fair. “We’re worried about them. When oil prices get too low they quit producing and that’s when we start losing a lot of oil industry jobs in the US economy.”

Candace Partridge lives in New York, but she can’t return home until the city reopens.

She said she is not surprised by the low gas prices.

“I feel like it’s inevitable because it’s a supply and demand situation,” she said. “If we can’t go anywhere we can’t get in no cars. There’s also less manufacturing demand so as we see oil prices went negative this week in the market it’s because no one is flying, no one driving, no one at work. As long as that holds true there’s nothing we can really do about this.”

As for Lashell Hughes, she said she is happy with the low gas prices.

“Well you know there’s really not that much moving around so it’s kind of good that the gas prices are going down you know it will still help us in the long run,” she said.

Triple-A is reporting that gas on average in Mississippi is $1.52 a gallon. In Alabama, average gas prices today are $1.59