Well, that is just a risk they took. As for gas prices, they should have been this low all the time.
What caused gas prices to soar in the first place was speculators. Everyone seemed to be under the impression that we are using so much gas, and oil companies need to drill more oil. When OPEC was asked to produce more oil, they cut back on oil production. Cause? Because they had oil just sitting on docks, because there was a low demand for oil. What was this ghost demand for oil? I have no clue, especially since AAA kept reporting that drivers are driving less and less.