For the first time in recent history, gasoline prices in Cortez dropped below $2 per gallon this week.
On Thursday, Jan. 29, the Giant Store on East Main advertised regular gasoline at $1.97 per gallon. Earlier in the week, Giant was charging seven cents more.
With the lower price at Giant, retailers along Main Street followed and adjusted their pump prices.
The national average for regular gasoline rose Tuesday by less than half a cent to $2.038 a gallon, according to travel and leisure group AAA. The uptick ended a record 123 days of consecutive decline, the longest since AAA started tracking retail gasoline prices 15 years ago.
With the falling gasoline prices, Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 officials report the district has saved $6,000 in its current fiscal budget.
“This assists with reducing the deficit we are in with respect to our revenue and expenditure imbalance,” said Re-1 finance director Wendy Everett.
City and county officials were also asked to describe any potential fuel saving. City Manager Shane Hale said the city had experienced some real savings in fuel so far.
“As a comparison, last year, we spent $15,594 during the month of January, which represented 6 percent of our budget,” said Hale. “This January, we’ve spent $7,125, which represents 2.5 percent of our budget for the same period.”
The city’s total 2015 fuel budget of $285,000 was based on oil futures of $103 per barrel. Earlier this week, oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading at $45.32 a barrel.
“We’re so early in the year, the costs savings have not been programmed anywhere else; for all we know, oil will be $125/barrel in July,” said Hale.
Commenting on volatility in the oil market, Hale said it could hinder finances, stating the city relies upon severance taxes and energy and mineral lease proceeds. He added that if domestic oil production diminished, then any commensurate reduction of carbon dioxide production by Kinder Morgan could ripple throughout the community.
Acquired monthly, the city’s last purchase for fuel – Jan. 20 from Honstein Oil – was sold at $1.54 a gallon for unleaded and $1.84 a gallon for diesel.
County officials explained that its fuel costs were included in each department’s individual budget, and providing information about either 2014 or 2015 wasn’t feasible by press deadline.
“While I agree that these reduced prices are assisting in keeping budgets down, it is only January,” said Montezuma County Administrator Melissa Brunner. “Our budget runs on a calendar year, so I cannot predict what will happen by December.”
Nationally, prices are hovering above their lowest levels in six years, and are down nearly 40 percent from a year ago.
Gasoline prices, however, often start to increase in early February, because of scheduled refinery maintenance before the summer driving season. But AAA officials predict gas prices will remain below $3 a gallon throughout 2015.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com
