If you’re headed to grandma’s house for Easter, you’ll have a little more money to spend on chocolate eggs, as gas prices have dropped. Jennifer Moehlmann of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources just completed a new survey on gas prices. She says prices averaged a dollar-forty-six a gallon, with some areas already lower and she expects prices to drop to the high dollar-thirty, low dollar-forty range in the next week or two. That’s down 20 cents from last month’s survey. Moehlmann says the quick end to action in Iraq help stabilize the world oil market. She says crude oil prices dropped after people saw the action in Iraq ended faster than expected. Iraq has millions of gallons of oil and Moehlmann says it will have some impact when it’s flowing into the market again. She says it could be weeks before that happens. She says the impact will likely not be major, as other oil producing companies that’ve been pumping extra oil to make up for Iraq’s supply will cut back once it’s back on the market. Moehlmann says gas prices will likely move up some in the next month as people take to the highways and byways for summer trips. She says the summer driving season generally starts in mid-May and that could drive prices into the high dollar-forty or low dollar-fifty range. She says Venezuela also has an influence on the price of gas. Venezuela has returned to producing crude oil and gasoline, but production rates remain below last year’s levels.
