Gas For 79 Cents A Gallon? Pump War Between Two Houston Stations Rages On

HOUSTON, TX — No, your eyes were not fooling you. You really could fill your tank for 78 cents a gallon if you were willing to wait in line at one of two stations on the city's south side on Sunday.

The pump war going on between the Johnny Quick and Texaco stations on Old Spanish Trail near State Highway 288 is still raging, but the former was selling regular gasoline for $1.78 a gallon on Tuesday morning, still a substantial bargain.

"The guy across the street is selling his for $1.79," the Johnny Quick manager told Patch on Tuesday.

Stay tuned, though, because war is hell, and this battle of the pumps could easily heat up, pushing prices closer to the $1 per gallon level.

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Paying 78 cents a gallon is a huge discount, of course, because the national average of gas in the U.S. rose 2 cents to $2.35 a gallon this week; how long has it been since you filled your tank for $11?

"The cheapest bottle of water is 99 cents, and our one gallon of gas is 79 cents a gallon," a man who filled his tank at one of the Houston stations on Sunday told KTRK.

"If it's a gas war going on, I hope it's a trend that goes around the city," another gas customer said. "We definitely need it in these times. Y'all know what I'm talking about."

The price of oil has been hovering around $48 a barrel this week, and the failure of a recent OPEC deal has renewed talks of an oil price war, so other pump skirmishes could break out around the city.

What's good for the driver, however, is bad for station owners, who already occupy the segment of the oil industry with the lowest profit margin.

— Image public domain