Oil prices that dropped this week over signs of a weakening economy, got a boost today with European Leaders announced that they would push for a $163 billion growth package and brewing storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

But, gasoline prices fell again this week 2 more cents. This makes fuel 14 cents cheaper than the same time last year. With falling consumption as well as lower prices, Americans are spending $124 million less a day on gasoline.

The slowdown in manufacturing in China, Europe and the United States weigh down the oil market. Matt Smith, analyst at Summit Energy says, “Prices have gotten clobbered, and it’s being driven by the deteriorating economic data.” Chinese manufacturers reported the sharpest decline in new export orders since March 2009 yesterday.

The production boom in our country has allowed U.S. supplies to rise to their highest levels in 22 years. The rising supplies are also seriously weakening the oil prices. “You have a lot of U.S. crude that’s coming on line at a much faster rate than anyone anticipated and it’s displacing some of the foreign sweet crude that would come in under normal circumstances.”

Oil is now at an eight month low at $78.20 after raising for a time to $78.53 today. The price has dropped 26% in less than two weeks.