General Discussion

But the price of a gallon of gasoline is influenced by many factors:

seasonal demand
work from home policies
pandemics
the amount of ethanol allowed into the mix
the available supply of each specific blend -- 87, 89, 91, 93, jet fuel, etc
10 other things

Yes oil futures involve speculation but now many large customers locked in high cost for months. IOW if UPS, Walmart, Fedex bought September futures when the price was $110 they are stuck with that. Oil futures are used reduce risk and uncertainty. For example, airlines sell tickets months in advance so they need to know what their fuel costs will be for Thanksgiving travel. They do that by buying October and November deliveries (futures) now or two months ago. If they bought at $110 then they aren't going to get a discount to $80 today.

'Speculation' sounds like a greedy, frivolous thing but it means some had to buy and some had to sell oil futures and neither one knew with any certainty whether prices three months into the future would fall back to $60 or rip to $150. Futures traded at $105 to $120 because it splits the difference.