The price of crude oil jumped up between 5% and 7% Wednesday, prompting concerns that Connecticut gas prices could increase after a downward trend from May.
The average price of a gallon of regular gas in Connecticut was at $3.86 a gallon on Wednesday, according to the fuel price tracking web site Gas Buddy. Connecticut’s gas prices have been falling consistently since mid-May, knocking 76 cents per gallon of the price in the process.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the energy tracking web site GasBuddy, said the end of the cease fire in the war between the United States and Iran “is putting upward pressure on oil prices, which could start pushing the national average (price of gasoline) toward $4 in the days ahead.”
“We’re up 2 cents per gallon (in terms of the national average price for regular gas) since Monday,” De Haan said on Wednesday. “Watch for potential price increases soon.”
Chris Herb, president of the Cromwell-based Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, said that while wholesale prices of gas have risen quickly since the beginning of the week, “the price on the street has been slow to catch up.”
Crude oil is the raw, unrefined petroleum that serves as the primary ingredient for producing gasoline. But De Haan said it’s a misconception to assume that oil and gasoline have a fixed relationship.
“Crude is the largest input cost, but gasoline has its own market,” he said. “Sometimes they move together. Sometimes they move in opposite directions.”
The reason for the increase in crude oil prices isn’t limited to the U.S. Iran cease fire, according to experts. Energy markets are reacting to fuel inventories being 12% below the five-year average, Herb said..
“Oil supplies have been tight for a while now and the market is reacting to that,” Herb said.
Another factor in increasing crude oil price, according to De Haan, is new attacks on Russian oil refineries by Ukraine.
The latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which was released last week, take a more optimistic view of gasoline prices over the remainder of this year.
“Gasoline prices in our forecast average $3.80 per gallon in the third quarter of 2026,” the report said in part. “In the near-term, we expect the crude oil-driven decrease in gasoline prices will be partly offset by rising wholesale and retail margins as low gasoline inventories keep gasoline spreads elevated. As inventories rebuild and the summer demand season ends,spreads in our forecast narrow, pushing retail prices down to around $3.40/gal in the fourth quarter of 2026.”
Source: Original Article
