DeHaan Does Not Expect Fuel Price Relief Or COVID Slowdowns This Summer
The first five months of 2022 have been a challenging time for consumers of gasoline and diesel, with prices rising dramatically between January 1st and now. And fuel prices could be moving higher in the coming weeks, with West Texas Crude trading near $120 per barrel in early Tuesday action, up roughly 3.5% over the past 24 hours. Much of that increase is thanks to China lifting many of its COVID lockdown requirements. Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy says 2022 has been a crazy year so far, and he expects American consumers to face additional surprises as we now move into the summer drive season.
“Amidst a time when demand is rebounding as the nation has largely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. So, I think we’ll continue to see a few curve balls this summer. It’s not looking like those curve balls will help provide and relief, but likely the opposite.”
Some have feared the increasing COVID cases in the U.S. and elsewhere could force the global economy to stall yet again. DeHaan does not expect any such increase to impact the oil market and the overall economy the way earlier upticks did.
“I think we’ve learned to adapt, obviously vaccinations have been available now for over a year and it doesn’t look like we’re are going to backslide in terms of shutdowns and limitations. I think we’ve learned how to navigate the pandemic, and I don’t think from here on out that there will be any slowdown related to the economy in the U.S., even if there are an uptick in cases.”
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