With the military crisis in Ukraine and a barrel of oil above $105, in the In the coming weeks it is very likely that more states will see higher increases in the price of gasoline.
The movements of the international markets do not bring good news for American consumers who have seen, for several months, how the prices at the gasoline pumps increase relentlessly for the pockets.
In which states is the price of gasoline rising
The new ceiling that consumers are expected to pay will be $4 per gallon. These prices have been seen for a few weeks in California, the state with record average gasoline prices.
Californians are paying $4.77 for every gallon of fuel, according to figures from the American Automobile Association (AAA). Following the news of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, gasoline prices also broke the $4 barrier in Oregon and Hawaii.
Two factors marked the pace of gasoline prices this Thursday: the increase of more than $77 in the price of barrel of Brent oil and a consequent increase of $0.14 or 5% in the price of wholesale gasoline.
These two phenomena initially moved prices in some states of the country.
“It is probable that the increase in wholesale gasoline prices are transmitted to consumers at the service pumps in a matter of days ”, considered Tom Kloza, global head of Energy Analysis of the Oil Price Information Service , in an interview with CNN.
The prices at service stations in Washington and Nevada are just a few cents away from the $4, for the purchase of regular gasoline.
According to the analysis of projections, Kloza considered that the states where the current average price of gasoline does not exceed $3.50 per gallon, could break the $4 ceiling, even with the imbalances caused by the military crisis in Ukraine.
In this scenario, consumers in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Mississippi would see increases, but below the four dollars estimated to be paid on average in the rest of the country.
For the expert from the Oil Price Information Service, for mid-March, the average price of gasoline in the United States will be $4 per gallon, a figure that has not been seen at the service pumps since 2008.
Other factors that increase the price of gasoline in the US
The operation Russia’s military in Ukraine is the most recent of the factors that have pushed the price of gasoline to record levels, but is not the only one.
The United States is not a relevant importer of Russian oil; however, the announcement made on Wednesday night by the president of this country, Vladimir Putin, did move the international prices of this energy source.
A few minutes after the announcement of the Russian military advance, the international price of a barrel of Brent oil broke the ceiling of $100 and by Thursday’s day it was up to $105.
Oil market prices moved due to the uncertainty of Russian oil and eventual sanctions that Europe, a major consumer of Russian crude oil and gas, imposes on the Kremlin as a consequence of the military intervention in Ukraine.
Other reasons that have more to do with the local point to the fact that thedemand for gasoline has increased after the last wave of Covid-19, powered by the omicron variant. This increased need for fuel is outstripping supply.
An additional factor is the country’s disrupted refining capacity. In Texas, an ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown is out of service due to a pre-Christmas fire in 2021.
A couple more of these types of facilities in Louisiana are also on hold for damage from Hurricane Ida in August of last year. Additionally, gasoline refining has been phased out on the West Coast as several facilities are being converted to process renewable fuels.
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