Lower Gas Prices Impact Economy

By Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, OK - Gas prices are plummeting at the pump and on the market. The price of gasoline dropped another nickel overnight on Thursday and the price of crude oil is down below $80 a barrel.

Both prices are impacting Oklahoma's economy, but how?

Everyone benefits from lower pump prices when they fill up, but for the state's oil producers, and state government, the drop in crude oil prices means less money coming in.

Mid-afternoon on Friday, the average price of gasoline was $2.82 a gallon.

Joanne Copeland was happy with the change.

"We need this gas to be down like this, because it's hard on everyone anyway, everything going up with the prices," said Copeland.

The drop in price can be great news for people filling up, but the fluctuation can be a problem for convenience store operators.  Imagine filling up 8,000 gallon tanks, only to find out the next day you could have gotten it cheaper.

The falling price of crude threatens the state's oil industry which now produces a product worth about half what it was six months ago.

"If the price of oil gets down around the $60 level, it will be a bad day, that's not good," said Dewey Bartlett of Keener Oil & Gas.

Bartlett is an oilman and heads an association of small oil producers.

"If the prices continue to drop as they are it will cause a real drop in drilling activity and that doesn't speak well for the state of Oklahoma," said Bartlett.

But so far this year, the state's tax on oil and gas production is up 74%.

This time last year, the state had collected $291 million in production taxes. This year, it's up. Oil & gas producers have paid the state $510 million.

The price at the pump is dropping by the day, prompting drivers to not fill up.