Gas prices in Montana dipped a little this past week, but are still high compared to last year despite falling oil prices. Gasbuddy.com Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan Explains.

We're sitting a little bit prettier, average prices in Montana down about 3.5 cents a gallon in the last week. the statewide average is currently around  $2.93 cents, that's down from close to $2.97 last week, but prices still stubbornly high, about 35 cents higher than they were last year."

DeHaan says the recent blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline hasn’t impacted prices at the pump yet, but will do a number on oil production in the north.

"That pipeline would have acted as a major device to ship crude oil from Canada and North Dakota down to the Gulf Coast, but now, with that project again derailed, as it so often has been, the prospects look fairly dim for oil production in North Dakota and, mainly, Canada, where some of the blends of Canadian crude oil are selling for just $17 a barrel."

$17 a barrel is far lower than the $60 a barrel price for crude oil in the general marketplace. The price of oil has plummeted in recent weeks, DeHaan says it was $76 a barrel at the beginning of October.

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