Dave Maxwell
The Sinclair gas station in Alamo is offering the lowest regular unleaded prices in Lincoln County. The national average at present is about $1.73 per gallon of regular unleaded.
Gasoline prices at the pumps in Lincoln County, for all grades, have been dropping periodically for the past several months. As of Feb. 16, the lowest price was at the Sinclair in Alamo, $1.99 for regular unleaded. Ash Springs Shell was at $2.00, $2.15 at the Sinclair in Caliente, $2.09 at the Y Service in Panaca and $2.15 at the Sinclair in Pioche.
As reported in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “last week AAA released a report that showed Nevada’s average gasoline price was $2.19 per gallon for regular unleaded, a 29-cent drop in the past month. By contrast, the national average stood at $1.73 per gallon, but only a 23-cent drop.”
Cynthia Harris, spokeswoman for AAA, was quoted in the Review-Journal article, saying, “Prices continue to slide because we’re seeing an oversupply of crude oil on the local level and national level. This is the highest inventory we’ve had in eight decades (since 1936), and why prices are continuing to drop in most states.”
Prices are known to usually drop some in January and February. Harris noted, “People are not driving as much during the winter months and Saudi Arabia did not cap their oil production this year and Iran has been putting oil on the market after the sanctions were lifted. Prices are expected to continue to drop for a while yet.”
However, she also speculated prices are just as likely to begin to rise by the end of the month, although admits it might be later.
Vicky Fowler, traveling from Twin Falls, Idaho to California, stopped to get gas at Ash Springs Shell, and said it was only $1.53 – $1.55 for regular unleaded in Twin Falls.
Cheryl Wenner of Panaca said it was amazing to see the low prices in the county. “I don’t know when the last time it was that prices were at this level.”
Kyle Sorenson of Alamo, at the Sinclair station, said he was not surprised to see prices dip below $2. “I think it will get lower, too. But I doubt it will return to $4 again. And I think with a change in the administration, we’ll pump more gas in America.”
A pilot car driver, Cary (last name withheld), from Spanish Fork, Utah, said he purchased regular unleaded gas at $1.64 at Costco last week. He said he believed prices would eventually drop from the $4 per gallon it had risen to. “There was no way that was going to be sustained forever.”
Wesley Kitchen of the Buckhorn Ranch in Alamo, said when he was kid many years ago, he remembers gasoline selling for 10 cents a gallon. “When I worked in the service station, we would make sure to wash the windshield, check the tire pressure, check the oil, then they’d buy 50 cent’s worth of gas.”
