Gas prices continue to rise in NC but show signs of leveling off
Gas prices in North Carolina rose at their lowest rate in weeks Friday in a sign that the dramatic spike tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine may be leveling off.
The average price per gallon of regular rose a penny overnight to $4.19, according to AAA. That’s the smallest one-day increase since Feb. 22.
Gas prices in North Carolina had risen an average of 36 cents a gallon in the month before the invasion, according to AAA. Since Russian troops and tanks crossed into Ukraine on Feb. 24, they’ve risen another 72 cents.
Diesel prices have risen more sharply in that time, from less than $4 a gallon to $5.13 on Friday, according to AAA.
With support of politicians from both parties, President Joe Biden banned the import of Russian oil and oil products on Tuesday and warned Americans to expect to pay even more at the pump.
Patrick De Haan, an analyst for the website GasBuddy.com, said Biden’s announcement wasn’t a surprise. De Haan said oil prices already reflected collapsing demand for Russian oil, as companies and their financiers pulled back on purchases before the U.S. decision.
Predicting how high gas prices will go is not easy, because the oil market has become so volatile. The price of Brent crude, an international benchmark, actually dropped more than 10% the day after Biden’s announcement, on news that some Middle Eastern countries might increase production. It has oscillated since then but remains below its Tuesday peak.
De Haan said he thinks gas prices will continue to inch up, though not as rapidly as they have in the last couple of weeks. Nationwide, he said, he expects the price to top $4.50 a gallon on average, up from $4.33 on Friday. Diesel prices have already surpassed $5 a gallon.
All this could change if European Union countries, which are much more dependent on Russian oil and buy much more of it than the United States, decide to start buying from other countries instead.
“If the EU were to cut off Russian energy, that would cause an absolute explosion in the price of oil,” De Haan said. “But for now the Germans have made very plain that they do continue to import and will continue to import oil from Russia because they are beholden to Russia and their natural gas supply.”
The other factor in the supply-and-demand equation that ultimately determines the price of oil is the consumer, De Haan said. If people buy less gas, that could help moderate the price, he said.
Russia is the world’s third largest oil producer, after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. buys relatively little Russian oil and oil products, but De Haan said the global effort to punish Russia by shunning its exports affects American drivers.
“This is a global commodity. And so everyone feels the effects of it,” he said. “When we have a hurricane that knocks out U.S. oil production, oil prices don’t just go up in the U.S.; they go up globally as well. And that’s because we’re all tied together.”
The price of gas in North Carolina is higher than it’s ever been, surpassing the previous high of $4.085 per gallon in September 2008. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $5.33 a gallon today.
