If the after-Christmas sales have disappointed, at least getting to those sales and malls is easier and more affordable, due to the plunging gas prices.

 

It’s now possible to find gas at less than $2 a gallon at many stations across the state. Along the Hwy. 10 corridor of Sherburne County, SuperAmericas, Holidays and Casey’s station stores were advertising $1.89 a gallon as of this week.

 

These are the lowest prices in more than five years, and it’s less than half of what Minnesotans paid back in May of 2013, when supply problems sent gas prices over $4.20 a gallon. Oil had been trading at $107 per barrel in June after unrest in the Middle East; now it's around $45.

 

“It’s something I haven’t seen in about 15 years,” said Santiago resident Lisa Weller. “It’s kinda nice. A lot easier on the budget that’s for sure.”

 

Evelyn Cox of Becker filled up her Dodge Caravan at SA this week as she headed to the rehab center where her husband was recovering from surgery.

 

“We don’t get out a whole lot so we don’t do a lot of driving anyways but it is nice to see prices come down,” she said. “It’s certainly much better than it was.”

 

Kelly Klatt, who commutes from Becker to the cities for her job, is very grateful the cost of gas has come down.

 

“It’s definitely a good thing since I tend to drive a lot,” she said. “We are seeing a savings and now the money we are spending on gas can go towards savings or paying off a bill.”

 

Increased production in the U.S. and declining demand because of weak economies in Europe and Asia are getting the credit for the drop. Also, the energy minister for the United Arab Emirates — a member of OPEC — suggested that the cartel will not lower production to reduce global supplies in an effort to reverse falling prices. It’s also an apparent effort to force a slowdown in U.S. production. 

 

While the average consumer benefits from the slide, the drillers and oil companies around the nation are taking the hit.

“It’s the Saudis doing what they can to drive our oil companies out of business,” said Pete Steichen of St. Cloud. It’s good for the common man, but not so good for the companies up north.”

 

But will these low prices stick around? And how low will they go?

 

Professor Akshay Rao, a nationally-known gas pricing expert said, “My instinct is that come this summer, when driving patterns change, prices will again rise,” he said. “Prices for a commodity such as gasoline are driven by forces supply and demand, and supply today is higher than it has been historically and demand in the winter tends to drop.”

 

U.S. oil production was zooming as 2014 was closing out, producing nine million barrels of oil per day, up 80% since 2008 and the highest rate of production in three decades.

 

But now the energy department is forecasting production from U.S. shale operators to tail off in the second half of 2015, marking the first such drop in six years.

 

The low crude prices are leading to significant savings for buyers of diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and heating oil. Typical households will spend $750 less on gasoline in 2015 compared to 2014 because of the drop in pricing at the pump.

 

“It’s good news for us commuters for the time being but I don’t think it’ll stay this low or get much lower,” said Todd Hille of Cloquet. Hille, a sales and service engineer at Albany International and contractor at Liberty Paper, Inc. in Becker, appreciates the drop in gas prices as he drives the company SUV from business to business.

 

“Will these low prices remain where they are or go lower? I really don’t know,” said Hille. “It all hinges on OPEC, I guess.”

 

The energy department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that the average global price of crude oil will be around $58 a barrel in 2015 and rise to around $75 in 2016 as demand for oil increases and global supplies slow.

 

However, the lower prices we see today are affecting the plans for new exploration by onshore drillers like the ones in North Dakota, Texas and elsewhere in the U.S. North Dakota produces nearly 1.2 million barrels a day from more than 11,000 wells and had at one time 193 rigs in operation at its peak in Sept. of 2014.

 

As of today, they are down to 158 rigs, down 23% from just last month. It’s been projected the rig number could drop to 120 later this year if prices stay low.

 

That fall in prices has big implications for the state of ND, which gets about 11% in taxes from each barrel of production.

 

The country of Greenland, an island that many say is sitting on trillions of dollars of crude oil, was once salivating at the prospect of having drillers like Exxon and Mobil arrive to tap into their fields.  When the cost of oil was topping out at $150 a barrel just a short while ago, Greenlanders girded for a production boom, turning every one of the 56,000 citizens into millionaires.

 

Now they will have to continue to rely on aid from allies such as Denmark to keep their economy afloat.

 

It’s been estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey there may be nearly 50 billion barrels of oil and gas beneath Greenland’s waters.

 

Back home here in the U.S., not much thought goes into how many barrels of oil are generated or how the decrease could effect America’s oil companies. What matters is it’s a whole lot less painful sliding that credit card at the gas pump today, than it was just six months ago. 

 

“I’ve been following the developments of the gas prices on the news and I’m hoping the gas prices stay under $2 a gallon,” said Weller. “However, if it climbs, there’s nothing I can do about it. It won’t change my driving habits either way.”

 

Update: As of Friday, gas prices jumped to $2.05 at SuperAmerica, Holiday and other local pumps.