The price of gas is set to be raised to $4 per gallon or more within the next five months, as reported by an industry analysis published this week.
The gas price increase is forecasted to take place by Memorial Day this coming May, according to the news report from GasBuddy, a gas tracking app, and shared with the CNN. But the analysis said the avg. cost of gas at pumps throughout the country would then decrease during the summer and fall months of 2022, declining below current gas prices.
“We might see a national avg. that flirts with, or in the worst-case scenario, possibly exceeding $4 per gallon,” said Patrick De Haan, who is the director of petroleum analysis from GasBuddy.
While the avg. price might surpass $4 per gallon by May, the expectation is that it would most likely hit a peak near the $3.79 per gallon level in May, CNN reported. By June and July, gas prices will reportedly decrease slightly to about $3.78 a gallon and $3.57 a gallon, respectively, just before dropping sharply.
“Demand has come back strong,” De Haan stated, according to CNN. “But the supply is still playing catch up after having a sharp cut in 2020.”
Meanwhile, the country wide average price of gas fell to $3.28 per gallon this week, according to a AAA database. While it is going down, the current avg. price of gas has remained 45.8% higher than it was just a year ago, according to AAA.
Pump prices have decreased nearly 4% since early Nov. when they climbed to $3.41 a gallon, government data has shown. The last time gas prices were that high was Sept. 2014.
Experts have blamed the decline on the increasing Covid-19 cases which might threaten the ongoing economic recovery from the Covid pandemic. Washington, though, has credited Pres. Joe Biden’s recent move to release up to 50 million barrels of oil from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve on November 23 for the price drop.
However, oil prices increased after the president’s announcement.
Author: Scott Dowdy