Gas prices have recently been dropping across Indiana, but don’t expect that trend to continue. GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says many of the issues that led to a spike in gas prices in early November have since been resolved. “Due to the factors we had previously talked about, a pipeline leak that has been fixed, refinery maintenance season, which is now done, gas prices have been in free fall across much of Indiana for the last two weeks.”
But he says some places have seen more of a drop than others. “In an environment like this where wholesale prices have plunged, some stations paid a lot more for that gasoline, and they’re kind of reluctant to lower their price,” he explains. “So you can see a lot of mixed prices, and that’s why it’s very important to shop around because one community may be selling at $2.20, $2.30; one station a few miles away could be $2.50, $2.60, depending on what they paid. So take the time, shop around, and find that cheap station.”
DeHaan says oil prices remain at multi-year highs, though, and that will soon have an impact on retail prices. “To close out this year, we’re seeing some of the higher prices that we’ve seen, aside from Hurricane Harvey, and it’s likely that prices may, over the next couple of days, drift a little bit lower, but I would say that we could see prices take another jump higher and spend the rest of the year, kind of in the low-to-mid-two-dollar-a-gallon range, before we see any sizable relief that may come in January and February.”
He says part of that has to do with OPEC’s decision last week to extend production cuts initially announced back in 2016.
