Gas prices are hitting all-time highs — and the situation is not getting better anytime soon, according to experts.
On Tuesday, prices reached an average of $4.92 per gallon nationwide, according to AAA, with the price in New York City hitting an average of $5.08.
“We could go higher this summer,” petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy told The Post. “I don’t see much opportunity for a big decline.”
The price surge may ease at some point during the summer — but the potential for supply disruption remains as, for example, a hurricane could knock out oil production in the Gulf Coast, experts said.
That plus increased summer travel and the lifting of COVID restrictions in China has created a perfect storm for prices to continue to rise, possibly into the fall.
Gas prices are hitting all-time highs, and the situation is not likely to improve in the near future, experts say. EPA“We should see some offsetting decline [in the fall] unless there is an outside factor,” De Haan said. “I don’t think most Americans would call it significant. Most of the issues affecting us today will still be around in the fall.”
The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates the issue, since the world has yet to recover from the massive dent in oil production that occurred in the initial months of the outbreak.
“Oil production still hasn’t recovered to pre-COVID levels. It’s going up, but it can’t recover quickly enough,” De Haan said. “We’re going to be stuck in this until demand comes down significantly, or supply goes up. That feels like a long shot at this point.”
De Haan said President Biden has “a few more cards in his deck” that he can use to lower prices, such as allowing gas with methane, which is typically only permitted in winter, to be used during the summer months.
“President Biden can’t do anything with significant immediate effect for the nation,” De Haan said.
Tom Kloza, head of energy analysis at OPIS, said he was “surprised” the Biden administration had yet to pursue some sort of nationwide gas tax holiday. So far such policies have only been enacted at the state level, he said.
“That would be something that they could do right [now] on the verge of crossing $5 a gallon as the national average, and mitigate those price increases,” Kloza said of any effort to roll back the 18-cents-per-gallon federal gas levy.
Prices also may stop their rise — or even drop slightly — at some point in the coming weeks as cash-strapped Americans avoid the pump altogether, Kloza predicted. But the potential for summer disaster makes it hard to predict the future.
Gas prices “could go higher” over the summer, petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy told The Post. Robert Mecea for NY Post“People are not buying as much gasoline. They’re cutting back,” he said. “If we don’t get hurricane threats and the electrical grid holds up, we could see gas prices drop towards the end of the summer.”
Goldman Sachs on Monday predicted crude oil — one of several components of commercial gasoline — will rise from $118 now to $135 in the second half of the year.
And Americans seem unlikely to forgo vacations after two years cooped up due to COVID.
“Usually prices peak sometime in May, June, July or August, depending on the season and how it goes,” AAA New York director Robert Sinclair told The Post.
“I have a feeling it’s going to go. A lot of people have cabin fever.”
With Post wires
