STATEWIDE–Russia’s continued assault on Ukraine and the transition by stations into summer gasoline will continue to make gas prices rise.
US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that his administration has worked with 30 other countries to release millions of barrels of oil from American strategic reserves. But, with Russia being the second-largest oil producer in the world, that move has not caused gas prices to drop.
“The bottom line is this is not enough to cool off the market,” Michael Tran of RBC Capital Markets, told CNN. “It’s a bit of a band-aid solution.”
GasBuddy has said that by the end of the day Thursday, most stations will be selling unleaded gas for $3.89 in Indiana.
“Prices are going to continue going up, so it’s best to fill up sooner rather than later,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.
OPEC has already decided to not expand its oil production beyond its current quotas. The current OPEC members are the following: Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Venezuela.
“It’s not a surprise from OPEC that they said, ‘Well, we’re not going to do anything more than what we’re already doing.’ Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates seem to be siding with Russia, so at least for now, OPEC is not really rising to the occasion here and letting oil prices run up dramatically,” said DeHaan.
The rest of the world is hitting Russia with sanctions.
“Well, we’ve basically sanctioned Russia’s oil and natural gas because the previous sanctions on banks making transactions are very difficult now. While we have not directly applied sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, the previous sanctions are so strong that they are having major impacts,” said DeHaan.
Some stations are already making the transition from winter gasoline to summer gasoline, which is more expensive.
