[sammyg2]

The price of oil and the price of gas are not directly tied to each other. They will tend to follow parrallel paths during times of high demand but in other times (like now) they can be reverse indicators.
This is wintertime and that is typically when oil refineries shut down parts of their plants for much needed maintenance (to keep them from burning to the ground).
When refineries are not producing that does two things:
1) they aren't consuming crude oil so the crude demand goes down, the price goes down.
2) they aren't producing gasoline so the gasoline supply goes down, the price goes up.

BTW, when oil was $39 and gas was $1.55 they were losing money on it. They were paying 93 cents for the oil and selling the gas for 95 cents. that does not even come close to covering refining costs. They could not and would not keep that up for very long.

Right now in the new york harbor, wholesale spot prices are $1.11 for unleaded regular. At $36 per bbl oil is costing them about 86 cents per gallon. that means the refiners are getting a gross profit of 25 cents. Typical refining costs add up to around 20 cents per gallon, so they are making 5 cents per gallon right now and they are partying.
5 cents is huge in this business as they are so used to making less.