Price At The Pump: Oil Prices Steady While Gas Prices Increase

While oil prices have held fairly stead over the past couple of weeks, West Texas and Brent have been inching up as of recent. As of Tuesday morning, WTI was up by more than 1% in trade at $64 per barrel, while Brent was up more modestly, trading around $68 a barrel.

International Issues Pushing The Oil Markets

The recent up swing has been driven by expected talks between the U.S. and Iran over that country’s nuclear ambitions. But, as Patrick DeHaan with Gasbuddy.com pointed out, that’s not the only international issue of the radar of oil investors.

“We've also got OPEC, who's now going to be mulling over their production pause, which lasts through the month of March," DeHaan said. "OPEC may start increasing production again starting in April after previously pausing those production increases several months ago. And that could hold the price of oil in check moving weeks forward.”

DeHaan said OPEC is looking at increasing production as a way to keep American and Canadian oil production at a minimum.

Most Northwest Motorists Paying More For Gasoline

He added while oil prices have moved very little this month, gasoline prices have moved quiet a bit higher. Washington’s gas prices increased to $4.06 a gallon, an increase of 28 cents over the past month. Oregon’s average right now is $3.60 a gallon, up 10 cents from last week, while Idaho’s average gas prices is $2.93 virtually unchanged week-over-week.

Photo: Glenn Vaagen

“Washington state, the third most expensive behind California and Hawaii, that is likely where it will settle in for a longer period of time," DeHaan said. "And a lot of that having to do with the cap and trade program that Washington implemented several years ago that are now leading to much higher prices.”