Gas Prices in Wyoming See Slight Decline with Reports of New COVID-19 Variant

According to a press release by GasBuddy, gas prices in Wyoming have fallen 0.3 cents in the past week, averaging $3.41 a gallon on Nov. 29, which is 0.5 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and $1.27 a gallon higher than a year ago.

Get our free mobile app

According to the report, the cheapest station in Wyoming is $2.87 a gallon, while the most expensive is $3.89 a gallon.

On the national level, the average price of gasoline has fallen 3.4 cents per gallon in the last week, currently averaging $3.37 a gallon, down 1.4 cents from a month ago and $1.26 higher than a year ago.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said:

"Gas price declines are slowly picking up momentum. With oil's recent fall and the jury out on a new Covid variant, Omicron, we could be in store for lower prices based on many countries turning back to travel restrictions, limiting oil demand and potentially accelerating the drop in gas prices. There remains a very high level of uncertainty ahead of us as OPEC has also delayed its meetings to await more market movements and information on Omicron. But so far, Americans can expect the new variant to push gas prices even lower. Beyond the next few weeks, it remains nearly impossible to predict where oil and gas prices will head, though turbulence is guaranteed."

Last week, President Joe Biden announced that the Department of Energy would be releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, out of around 600 million barrels that are in the reserve.

Of those 50 million barrels, 18 million were already authorized by Congress to be released in the years ahead, while the remaining 32 million will need to be returned by oil companies in the months ahead.

Because of this, De Haan said the release has had a limited impact on gas prices, compared to fears of the Omicron variant, due to most of it being an exchange, while 100 million barrels would have been more effective.