For the 10 week in a row, gas prices have dropped.
The national average at $3.50 per gallon.
At the same time, crude oil prices are down over the last month and a half, but that may be where the similarities end for those two.
What starts out in the field as crude oil is refined and turned into gasoline but that's about where the connection ends.
ProNews 7's Steve Myers asked Panhandle Plains Royalty Owners Association spokesperson, Wayne Hughes about the connection.
"What's the most asked question get on a daily basis?"
"How can you connect the cost of crude oil and gas and the answer is, you cannot predict what it is," answered Hughes.
For consumers like Jeremy Mares, a research assistant at Amarillo College, finding that connection between the cost of crude oil and gas prices seems pretty obvious, especially the part about prices not going down as quickly as they shot up.
"I've always wondered why gas prices were really quick to go up and not co come back down. You know, I guess it's really easy to get indignant and up in arms about it, but there's nothing I can do about it so sure it infuriates me and if I think about it too much I would really get upset so, it is what it is. and what do you do about it?" mares asked..
A pretty obvious and legitimate question that Hughes likens to the cost of wheat and the cost of bread. There is a connection, but since commodities are bought and sold on the futures market, any bumps in the road can cause a major shift up or down, and that's where their relative costs and connections end.
"Gas is the refined version of crude oil so they're linked together; I mean, you're not refining wheat stalks to get gas so they're in the same neighborhood," stated Hughes.
Myers asked, "But it's not a direct result?"
"No," replied Hughes. "Never has been, never will. It just doesn't work that way."
