Jan 29, 2009 -- Price projections for natural gas, gasoline looking good
CLARKONOMICS: The cold winter much of the nation is experiencing at the moment would traditionally mean high costs for heating your home. But right now, there is an oversupply of natural gas. In fact, the cost at wholesale is down around a third of what it was in the fall of 2005 leading into 2006. Clark even saw a recent trade at 48 cents per therm!
This means there is tremendous opportunity to save on your home heating costs -- especially if natural gas is a deregulated industry with multiple marketers competing in your state. The smartest move right now is to have a floating rate -- not a fixed rate -- so you can benefit from the current low prices.
On the gasoline front, there's currently a huge disconnect between the extremely low price of a barrel of oil at wholesale ($35) and the price of a gallon of gas at wholesale ($1.06). So there's definitely some wiggle room there for prices at the pump to drop again. In fact, Clark thinks we may routinely see a gallon selling for somewhere in the 90-cent range again.
But he wants to remind people this should not be a reason to get SUV crazy. In fact, OPEC and the Saudis are doing everything they can to reduce the supply coming out of the ground. Don't expect the new lower prices at the pump to stick around forever.