When I was living in Houston I was quite impressed about how gas prices in the pumps would follow the fluctuations of the barrel. For me it was a big “wow” and it makes so much sense….in fact, in an open market this is how it should work. But that´s not true in most of the countries around the world thanks to the strong regulations around fuel/energy prices or to some distribution companies trying to cash more profit out of it, no matter what is the case, we won´t be saving any money because of lower prices of the barrel. In fact, most of the time, if O&G prices go down the only “real impacted” population are those working for the industry who will most likely start losing their jobs; and indirect business that live of it and will have to close their doors. Now…. us consumers… do we really see any reduction on energy prices? Are our gas bills much less expensive (about half of what it was 3 years ago)? Some would say because fuel is less expensive, products would be less expensive (some sort of impact on distribution costs)…. I don´t really see that. I haven´t seen any major discounts in Amazon because of lower gas prices, nor are flight tickets cheaper. Reality is, as consumers, we don´t see the impact of lower oil and gas prices (unless you live in the US), but we do see the impact when the barrel goes up. At that point, we can all be sure, “our prices” will rise.
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