Oil prices jumped 10-percent on Monday, so can increases in gasoline prices be far behind?
“They’re probably on their way,” says Patrick De Haan, petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, but this is a new situation we’re seeing on the oil and gasoline marketplaces.
“The big difference this time around from the Strait of Hormuz and the new escalations is — Ukraine is continuing to hit Russian oil refineries, which is also having an impact,” he says.
“Gas prices in Houston are actually down a penny this week so far, but I suspect that within 24-48 hours we could expect to see gas prices about $3.50 or even a little above that.”
With Russia continually being pounded by Ukrainian drones and bombs — especially Russian oil facilities, badly hurting President Vladimir Putin and his administration — De Haan says he expects continued price rises.
“And I do expect a bit of a jolt here in the next couple of days in the Houston area, and in addition diesel prices are expected to make a bit of a jump as well,” according to De Haan.
In fact, the continually higher price of diesel fuel could become a real problem soon, since diesel is considered the Fuel of Industry because the trucks, trains and buses that deliver goods and people to their destinations around the world almost entirely use diesel.
And high diesel prices could lead to rationing or “economic triage,” in which the nations with the most money are first in line to get the diesel, and even lead to increasing slowdowns in productivity, supply chains and the delivery of goods worldwide, he adds.