Oil Prices Remain High Over Demand Fears

While oil prices dropped slightly to start the week, they remain near four year highs. And that increased prices is pushing fuel prices higher, both diesel and gasoline. Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy.com said it’s not Hurricane Michael that’s pushing oil prices higher, it’s not cold temperatures in the eastern half of the U.S. pushing crude up, but rather the fear there will not be enough oil for a strong global economy.

“OPEC has not increased oil production admits very high oil demand globally, coupled with the loss of crude oil exports from Iran, a country that exports about two million barrels a day of crude oil, so, with sanctions on Iran coming back into play in less than a month, the concern is that there will not be enough oil supply globally to meet higher demand.”

That fear is what’s pushing what you pay at the pump higher. The national average for a gallon of diesel increased six cents in the past week to $3.27, Washington's rate increased three cents to $3.55 a gallon, meanwhile Oregon’s price also increased three cents a gallon to $3.41.

Here are some of the lowest diesel prices we could find across the Inland Northwest: