By Danni Ybarra |Staff Writer|

“Get ready for $10 [per barrel of] oil” and a decrease in gas prices, according to Yahoo Financial.

Yahoo Financial reports that the rise in U.S. oil production (due to hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling) and output, as well as other factors such as more environmentally friendly cars, is lowering our demand for foreign oil and therefore putting a large strain on the global oil market and in turn lowering prices.

These factors are what will likely help bring down the price per barrel to anywhere between $10 to $20, claims Yahoo Financial.

However, some are not so convinced.

Both NBC News and The Wall Street Journal report that gas prices are back on the rise and ready to become stable again.

“Gasoline prices are rising across the country. The average price of gas rose 13 cents in the past two weeks, bringing it up 26 cents since prices bottomed out after a nine-month slide ended in January,” reported NBC News.

“Prices collapsed from $115 [per barrel] in June [2014],” continued NBC News. This collapse was the cause of the continuing decrease until prices started stabilizing again this month.

“I loved the drop in prices!” said student Dara Dunn.

“The last time I saw it that low I was in elementary school,” continued Dunn.

Another factor of the price drop is the overproduction of oil by the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the organization for Middle Eastern countries who produce and supply oil. Since the overall global oil demand is declining, OPEC held an emergency meeting in November 2014 to address the issue.

OPEC came to the conclusion that it would not cut output production to save money, but rather keep output at the same rate and hope for the demand to increase again and for the market to steady itself.

OPEC currently has enough oil on reserve to boost their output even more to try and maintain their current cash flow.

“The Saudis figure they can withstand low prices for longer than their financially weaker competitors, who will have to cut production first as pumping becomes uneconomical,” reports Yahoo Financial.

Though OPEC may have enough to weather the storm, other non-OPEC countries, like Venezuela and Russia, are getting hit hard with the price decline and are petitioning OPEC to cut production to help them be competitive in the market again and save their economies, according to NBC News.

“It sucks that the prices are going up again, but it was nice while it lasted,” said student Christina Castro.
Those who are not easily persuaded still believe oil prices are back on the rise.

“Oil prices have started to stabilize around current levels of $60 a barrel and demand is showing signs of improving,” reports NBC News.

When NBC News spoke with a senior Gulf OPEC delegate, who remained nameless, on Feb. 24, he claimed “there are a lot of indications showing that demand is growing” and “the market is stabilizing as well as prices.”

“I drive an old Volkwagen Bus and if [gas] prices go up again that means I’ll be driving a whole lot less and walking a whole lot more,” said student Vladymir Gonzalez.