AAA<\/a>, the average price for a gallon of gas in Pennsylvania jumped from $3.12 Monday to $3.20 Tuesday. A year ago, drivers were paying slightly more at $3.30.<\/p>\nNationally, the average now sits at $3.10, up from $2.99 just a day earlier.<\/p>\n
Industry experts say the spike is tied to growing instability around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route responsible for moving a significant portion of the world\u2019s oil supply.<\/p>\n
GasBuddy\u2019s Head of Petroleum Analysis, Patrick De Haan, says threats from Iran targeting vessels in that region have shaken global markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing they have done, which is why markets are responding, is they\u2019ve made threats that they would attack vessels that are transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Indirectly, and in a de facto way, Iran has essentially undermined the stability of the Strait of Hormuz. Nobody wants to risk several hundred million dollars of oil cargo and $100 million crude carrier by traveling through,” said De Haan.<\/p>\n
De Haan says hundreds of ships have reportedly dropped anchor in the Persian Gulf, waiting to see what happens next. Oil prices have jumped more than 10 dollars per barrel in recent days, and that\u2019s pushing fuel costs higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy calculation is the national average, which has already gone up about 15 cents in the last couple of days, may go up another 15 to 30 cents over the next week or two,” said De Haan.<\/p>\n
Still, De Haan says while Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, he believes they likely lack the assets to do so directly and hopes volatility could settle within a week or two if tensions don\u2019t escalate further.<\/p>\n
And while some drivers are feeling the pinch, others say the increase hasn\u2019t been too dramatic, at least not yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re moderate compared to other states. I drive for a living, I\u2019m in Jersey, in Maryland, so for PA it\u2019s actually pretty moderate. It did go up 10 cents a gallon, I noticed. As far as if it goes up, it goes up. If it goes down, I\u2019m indifferent. It\u2019s an ebb and flow,” said Ron Pellegrini of Pittston.<\/p>\n
De Haan says the situation is unpredictable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody has a crystal ball, I\u2019ve equated this to throwing a dart at a dart board that you can\u2019t really see, because there is so much uncertainty, but Canada is going to see very real increases in gasoline and diesel prices, really similar to that of the U.S. but they\u2019re going to be manageable,” said De Haan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Concerns over the growing conflict involving Iran are now hitting drivers here at home.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-129636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}