Oil prices appear to have reached the bottom of the barrel

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- Have the oil companies scraped the bottom of the barrel? According to the the rise in crude oil and gasoline prices over the past week, it appears that the fuel crisis has bottomed out.

The price of crude oil reached the bottom of the barrel at $43. Oil prices rose strongly on Monday with U.S. crude closing up 2.8 percent, at $49.36 a barrel; fluctuating between $50.56 and $46.67.

In line with the price of crude oil...after 123 consecutive days of gasoline prices going down, the price has gone up for the last nine consecutive days. Locally the average price per gallon is $1.84, up .04 since last week. The term ‘locally’ is used loosely because gasoline inside The Woodlands proper is typically .10 a gallon more than at the pumps in the surrounding areas.

According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was at about $2.03 last week. On Monday the national average hit $2.056, and it inched up to $2.067 on Tuesday.

Record-high inventories in the United States have resulting in oil refineries reducing their output, causing a rise in wholesale gasoline prices which results in consumer prices going up. AAA noted that more than half the gas stations in the U.S. still have gas under $2 per gallon; incredibly cheap compared to an average of $3.30 in January 2014. The national average is not expected to surpass $3 in 2015.