We are paying a little over $2.90 for a gallon of gas in Texas right now, but expect that to go up.
“January and February tend to be quiet during January and February when it comes to increases, but with geopolitical factors I think really the risk is that we continue to see prices go up,” says Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.com. DeHaan sites the current instability in Kazakhstan and Libya, while Russia threatens a possible invasion of Ukraine. “And of course Russia is the second largest oil producer in the world.”
At the height of the pandemic, DeHaan says, the world’s oil producers were kicking out just under 11 million barrels of oil a day. They are now putting out around 11.7 million barrels, demand outpacing production and inflating prices. He says it’s likely to get worse.
“Houston prices could break $3 a gallon at some point in March or April before potentially reaching $3.25 a gallon,” DeHaan suggests.
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