Oil prices have fallen 20% from their peak in August as a milder winter and decreased consumption has lowered demand, just as the refiners are bringing capacity back to full strength. As I traveled yesterday, we saw prices from a low of $2.12 per gallon in Atlanta to a high of $2.29 in Chicago. So the panic over prices for a gallon of gasoline are not going to remain at the 3 dollar a gallon level that some predicted over the summer.

 My brother in law drove through Canada last night and saw prices around $2.50 cents there with their higher tax structure, and saw a low of $2.05 cents a gallon in Michigan.

It looks as the prices for a gallon of gasoline are not going to remain at the 3 dollar a gallon level that some predicted over the summer. Even OPEC is pleased with the lowering of prices.

“Oil prices are moderating as we wanted,” Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Riyadh, where ministers and oil executives are gathering to open the headquarters of the International Energy Forum.

New York crude oil futures peaked at a record $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30, after Hurricane Katrina shut rigs and refineries in the southern U.S. They have since dropped, closing yesterday at $57.21, easing strain on global economies and consumers such as airlines and chemicals companies.

Oil and finance ministers from more than a dozen energy producing and consuming nations, including the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, are in Riyadh for the inauguration ceremony. The presidents of Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell Group and ConocoPhillips are also attending, according to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum. via Bloomberg