Oil Prices Move Higher Amid Encouraging COVID-19 Vaccine News

While not a big jump, oil prices have moved higher in the past week, thanks to encouraging results from the first rounds of COVID-19 vaccination in the U.K and U.S. Patrick DeHaan, with Gas Buddy, noted that pushed oil prices this week to some of the highest we’ve seen during the pandemic. And he added oil prices will continue to ride the vaccines coattails for the foreseeable future, encouraging news will push oil prices higher, discouraging news will make prices drop.

Will the economies of the world return to “normal” and will oil consumption increase in the year to come? DeHaan said it’s just too early to say.

“We just have no way of realizing at this point how it’s going to progress, how many doses of vaccine, any issues that could arise from that. 2021 will likely be the most difficult year to accurately forecast when it comes to oil and gas prices because of the amount of factors that are completely unpredictable.”

DeHaan noted OPEC agreed last week to increase production, in an effort to get ahead of the demand curve, as well as discourage the United States from getting back into the production business. The National average for a gallon of diesel increased three cents this week to $2.42, Oregon’s diesel price increased two cents to $2.72 a gallon, while Washington’s diesel prices dropped one cent to $2.82, and Idaho’s prices slipped a penny to $2.64,

Here are some of the lowest local diesel prices: