Gas costs across the US continue to rise as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, hitting an average of $3.60/gallon on Saturday alone and now, experts say gas costs could increase past $4 per gallon next month, according to a report.
Tom Kloza, an energy analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, shared his prediction to CNN on Thursday. He also said that 2008’s $4.11/gallon record could be broken in the spring.
“My guess is that you are going to see $5 a gallon at any triple-digit [oil prices] … as soon as you get to $100. And you might get to $6.50 or $7,” another expert, Energy World founder Dan Decker, said on Yahoo Finance Live.
Gas prices in California on Saturday increased 4 cents at an average of $4.81 per gallon. In Oregon and Nevada, gas prices have also surpassed $4.
Crude oil hit an all-time high of $105.79 per barrel on Thursday, which was the first time it went over $100 since 2014. However, on Saturday, the price decreased to around $92 per barrel. This increase in wholesale gasoline costs due to rising oil prices is likely to hit consumers soon, Kloza said.
The price at the pump may climb to $4 a gallon in the next week or two if the conflict in Europe and increasing crude prices continue, Brian Milne, energy editor at DTN, told MarketWatch.
DTN Senior Market Analyst Troy Vincent told CNET that if crude reached $150 a barrel this year, then $6.50 or $7 per gallon wouldn’t be far from possible.
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he would release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a deep underground storage facility located along the Gulf Coast that holds about 600 million gallons of crude.
However, some experts think that opening reserves won’t affect prices.
“We’re already at the lowest level of reserves in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve since 2002, so we’re already bumping up against constraints there, and frankly, it hasn’t had that much of an impact,” Isaac Boltansky, BTIG director of Policy Research, told Yahoo Finance.
Russia is one of the world’s largest crude and natural gas producers. It provides 10% of the global supply and roughly 40% for the European Union.
