Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With war waging in Israel, the price of oil has gone up notably.
"Oil prices have perked up over the last couple of weeks, because of, primarily, the situation in Israel, but they haven't gone up a whole lot. Oil prices at about $89 a barrel as of this [Friday afternoon]," said Patrick De Haan head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
However, the price of gas in Western New York and nationally continue to decline slightly due to several factors.
"The rise in the price of oil has not impacted gasoline prices. In fact, in Buffalo, the average price is down three cents a gallon in the last week to about $3.72 a gallon. Largely, a lot of the decrease happening across not only Buffalo but the rest of the nation, is due to the fact that the downward pressure on gasoline has so far blunted the impact of the rise in the price of oil. The drop in gasoline demand, as we get into cooler weather, and the switch over to winter gasoline, which happened several weeks ago, is still delivering some relief."
De Haan predicts that this week, gas prices will continue to decline slightly, but that could change as war continues to develop in the Middle East.
"There is a distinct possibility, especially if the situation in the Middle East escalates, that in the weeks ahead, we could see prices bottomed out temporarily. But I do think there's a little bit more downward room in prices, keeping in mind that if anything does develop in the Middle East that's unexpected, there could be a reversal."
De Haan highlights a potential development in Israel that could impact gas and oil prices.
"The real situation is if Iran, which has supported Hamas, enters the situation or escalates the situation, that certainly could be much more problematic as Iran is a larger oil producer and so we'll have to keep an eye on that. But for now, the impacts have been extremely limited."
While regular gas prices are going down, diesel prices are going up.
"That's because while gasoline is seeing a fall in demand, diesel generally sees demand going up into the colder weather. That's because diesel and heating oil are essentially the same product so anyone filling a home heating oil tank is likely to see a rise in prices. As refineries finish their seasonal maintenance, there still certainly could be a bigger jump in diesel as inventories of diesel fuel remain relatively tight," De Haan notes.