Michiganders are paying the price at the pump for the war with Iran.
On Monday, world crude oil prices continued to soar as the Iran war intensifies, threatening production and shipping in the Middle East and pummeling financial markets.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, surged above $119 per barrel Monday before retreating. West Texas Intermediate oil, produced in the United States, also soared above $119 per barrel briefly. Oil prices have surged as the war, now in its second week, ensnares countries and infrastructure critical to the production and movement of oil and gas.
The war between Iran and the United States and Israel is getting most of the blame for a big spike in Michigan gasoline prices. But not all the blame.
AAA Michigan spokesperson Adrienne Woodland said other factors were already inching gas prices higher.
“The switchover from the winter blend to the summer blend and refinery maintenance had dropped supply for gasoline,” said Woodland. “And then add on top of that the sharp spike that we’ve seen this past week in crude oil prices.”
Michigan’s average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline topped $3.55 this week. That's up 56 cents in the past week and 72 cents in the past month.
It’s unclear how much higher the price at the pump will go.
An energy industry analyst says: don’t expect prices to come tumbling down if the war ends soon.
Patrick DeHaan is an analyst with GasBuddy.Com. He said Michigan gas and diesel prices appear to be stabilizing, for now.
“Michigan’s gas prices could start to go back up though it doesn’t appear at least for the time being that four dollars is within the cards,” said DeHaan.
But DeHaan does not expect gas prices will fall very fall, if hostilities come to an end soon. The reason? The fuel blend switch to summer gas and the annual refinery maintenance cycle. DeHaan expects prices would only decline to the low to mid-three dollar range per gallon.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that increasing gas prices are “a very small price to pay” for “safety and peace.”
