Texas residents are enjoying relatively low gasoline prices even as events around the world are increasingly affecting the price of the oil from which gasoline is made.
One of the events impacting the price and availability of oil is the decision on Sunday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their affiliated nations, now called OPEC+, is the decision by those nations to raise the amount of oil to be produced for the world markets over the coming months.
Raising production is usually expected to lower prices because of the old rule of supply and demand, but this time the oil markets were prepared for the OPEC+ move, and the price of oil has actually gone up since the decision.
"And OPEC increasing oil production for most of 2025 now will likely put downward pressure on the overall price of oil moving forward," said GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick DeHaan.
Over the past decade or more, an increasing output of oil anchored by the astoundingly prolific Permian Basin in West Texas has caused OPEC to lose some of the control OPEC had in the 2010s, so the cartel is looking to regain market.
"And I think OPEC increasing oil production is sending a message to US producers that they're going to make things a little bit tighter for the time being, trying to win back some of the market share that they've lost to US producers over the past years."
But could OPEC be sending a message to West Texas of its own?
DeHaan says, "well, it certainly could be a long game that OPEC is playing by trying to raise production which would eventually reduce US production, and eventually it could mean OPEC might have more control over the markets."
Eventually. Maybe.