MSNBC Oil & Energy

Retail gasoline prices dipped for a 17th week since July 4, falling below $2 a gallon in a number of states and approaching $1.50 at some service stations.

In this tiny reservation town a hundred miles from the Canadian border where temperatures once hit 60-below zero, a Southern twang is sometimes heard over the din at the local diner and there is talk of Texas tea beneath the streets.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported income Thursday that shattered its own record.

Record crude prices this summer are translating into huge profits, as BP and Occidental Petroleum showed Tuesday, but some energy companies are bracing for tougher times, keeping a closer tab on cash and cutting spending.

Gasoline prices have fallen below $2 a gallon in some parts of the U.S. as the impact of plunging oil prices and reduced driving are finally taking hold.

With oil prices crashing and supplies backing up, OPEC ministers meeting Friday in Vienna face a number of thorny obstacles to regaining control of the market.