The price of gas may have leveled off over the past few days, but there may still be some more increases ahead.
GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Gregg Laskoski says that while prices seem to be on their way up, there’s been a bit of a break, especially in Indiana, “You’re seeing an average price at $2.14. That’s down two cents just in the last 24 hours, and it’s actually down 14 cents a gallon from where you were a week ago, so that has to be one of the steepest declines that we’ve seen anywhere in the country.”
He’s says that most of the refineries have already completed the transition to the more expensive summer-blend gasoline. However, lower crude oil prices have been keeping prices at the pump relatively low.
Since February, though, gasoline prices have been following crude oil prices up, little by little. “The prices at the pump have risen sharply when crude prices have risen sharply because that’s also pulled up wholesale gasoline prices,” Laskoski says. “But at the same time, it hasn’t been just a steady climb. It’s almost been like steps where we see increases and then a flattening out.”
Laskoski says it’s important not to read too much into the current plateau in prices, “It’s early May, and we haven’t even arrived at Memorial Day weekend, the beginning of the peak summer driving season. We still anticipate there’s going to be much more demand, and we expect that retail gasoline prices will climb through the rest of this month.”
He says that based on previous years, gas prices are more likely to peak sometime in June.
