SAN ANTONIO – Gas prices have been on the rise across the country, including in San Antonio, and an expert warns you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for a big drop.
As of Tuesday morning, the average price for a gallon of gas in the San Antonio metro area was $3.96, according to data from Gas Buddy. That’s just a little under the pre-tax price of two bean and cheese tacos.
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy, told KSAT the U.S. war with Iran has helped drive the price of gas over the past year — up about $1.16 in San Antonio — while Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries have contributed to diesel prices soaring even more significantly.
The price in San Antonio was down from roughly $3.98 Monday, but De Haan warned that’s likely due to the typical price cycle where prices go up, then drift down as gas stations try to compete with each other before bouncing up again either later this week or early next week.
“Outside of these weekly dips, gas prices probably will still remain overall elevated until there is drastic improvement in either/or geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Iran and Ukraine and Russia,” De Haan warned.
He doesn’t expect prices to get “drastically cheaper” in the coming months unless there’s a “major de-escalation” in either conflict, which could bring lower prices “very quickly”
“But obviously this has been very much a roller coaster ride,” he said. “We’ve heard talk of a deal, then a deal is off, then talk of the deal. And that creates a bit of a roller coaster effect. So watch the markets, but overall gas prices and diesel prices aren’t going to meaningfully be lower until there’s meaningful de-escalation that’s longer lasting.”
And while this is around the time that the switch to the cheaper, winter fuel blend might push down prices, De Haan says “almost no one” is seeing that.
“That’s because so many escalations have happened in the last two weeks that oil prices and rising prices for gasoline have essentially offset that seasonal relief,” he said.
The San Antonio area’s average price is about level with the rest of the state, but 50 cents lower than the national average.
The local average isn’t near the record high of $4.68 either, which was set in June 2022. It’s also under the $4.15 average from early May this year.
With that spring high driven by seasonal reasons like an increase in demand and the switch to the more expensive summer blend, De Haan doesn’t expect prices to go above that, but anything’s possible.
“If there are enough escalations, we still could knock that out,” he said.
Read also:
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.