President Trump has ordered an investigation into possible price gouging at fuel stations, an investigation he announced in a social media post.
“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being “gouged”,” Trump wrote.
“I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!” the U.S. president also wrote.
Gasoline prices in the United States have been declining for six weeks in a row amid the renewed push to settle the conflict between the U.S. and Israel, and Iran diplomatically. According to a Reuters report from earlier this week, the national average for a gallon of regular fell by $0.141 last week, to $3.85 as of Monday, based on GasBuddy data.
The price slide reflected a decline in crude oil prices as traders assumed the negotiations between Washington and Tehran would result in a swift reversal of the tanker traffic paralysis in the Strait of Hormuz. The assumption has been supported by multiple reports about tankers traversing the strait without any interference from Iranian forces.
International benchmarks have dropped to the lowest in four months on these reports, with Brent crude trading at $76.46 per barrel at the time of writing, and West Texas Intermediate at $72.61 per barrel.
“Positive signals from the Persian Gulf are fuelling optimism about oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Vessel crossings increased in recent days, although they remain well below pre-war levels,” ING commodity analysts wrote in a note earlier today.
“Crude oil prices were weighed down by hopes of easing U.S.-Iran tensions and a recovery in oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz,” a Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting senior analyst said, as quoted by Reuters.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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