Energy officer says we will see gas prices drop at least 30 cents by end of the week

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- If you filled up your gas tank in the past few days, you may have noticed you saved a few cents.

The price of crude oil dropped to $100 a barrel, causing gas prices to also trickle down.

This comes days after President Joe Biden announced a historic release of oil reserves from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve starting in May.

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Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti, the chief energy officer at the University of Houston, spoke with ABC13 about when we will see the prices go down and feel the relief in our wallets.

"We will probably see a 25 to 30 cent drop in gas prices and that should happen pretty soon. Probably by the end of this week," said Dr. Krishnamoorti.

He also said Americans are already seeing the impact of the news that Biden will release a million barrels of oil a day from the U.S. emergency reserve.

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"Oil markets move not based on actual supply and demand but on news of actual supply and demand," Dr. Krishnamoorti said.

So, when are we going to see the prices go down at the grocery store?

Dr. Krishnamoorti said that process is going to be slow.

"We saw a slow increase in the prices of things in the stores, things like groceries and food items. Milk all went up slowly. We'll see the similar type of decrease, but it's not going to be a sharp one," he said. "The thing to remember is that compared to a year ago, prices of gas are 50% higher and even with this 45% or 30% decrease, it's still 30% to 40% higher. So, yes, the prices of our commodities will come down some, but it's not going to come back to where we were a year ago."

But once those prices go down, will they stay there?

"Crude oil markets are extremely volatile, and the volatility is because of a very, very tight supply and demand situation," said Dr. Krishnamoorti. "If I were to make a prediction over the next six to nine months, by the end of the year we would be 50 to 60 cents lower than we are today."