Price At The Pump: Cold Weather Pushing Fuel Prices Higher

Oil prices continue to bounce around $60 a barrel or so; the same range we’ve seen for the past couple of months. As of Tuesday morning, West Texas Crude and Brent Crude were both trading slightly higher, at $60 and $65 a barrel respectively.

Oil Has Been Quiet, Same Can't Be Said For Gasoline

Patrick DeHaan with Gasbuddy.com says there is some internationally news pulling those oil prices slightly higher, including new sanctions from he Trump Administration on Iran, as well as a large refinery fire in Kazakhstan. But he noted the biggest thing that’s going to impact your wallet, is the massive winter storm gripping much of the central and easter portion of the country.

“So it's been anything but quiet at the pump, the national average jumping about 7.5 cents a gallon from a week ago, whereas the price of diesel nationally has jumped 8 cents from last week," DeHaan said. "And again, we haven't seen big weekly increases like this since last summer.”

Photo: Glenn Vaagen

DeHaan added these sub-zero temperatures are also pushing up for natural gas as well, which posted one of its largest week-over-week demand increases in a longtime.

And as we prepare to say goodbye to January, DeHaan says we should start to see prices at the pump creeping higher as refineries start the process of switching to summer blends of fuel.

“So I would say that by mid to late February, we will likely start to see gasoline prices rising because of the seasonal trends," DeHaan said. "Meanwhile, for diesel, once we start to see this cold weather that's gripping the country break, once we get closer to the spring, diesel prices tend to moderate.”