Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Gas prices have recently spiked not just in Western New York, but also across the nation.
According to AAA, gas prices in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region have seen a $.12-cent jump in one week's time, with gas averaging $3.76 per-gallon. Elsewhere in the United States, the average price for a gallon of gas has spiked as much as $.16 cents, also sitting now at $3.76 per-gallon.
LISTEN LIVE TO WBEN:
Elizabeth Carey from AAA of Western and Central New York says this has not been the typical year for gas prices locally and nationally.
"Normally, they peak, and they go up around Fourth of July, because so many people are traveling. This year, they were really flat through Fourth of July. But what we're seeing is they went up 12 cents in Buffalo in the past week," said Carey during an appearance on WBEN on Monday. "What happened is oil prices are really low, like $60, $70 a barrel. Now they're up past the $80 a barrel mark, so that really pushed those prices up."
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy, says gasoline inventories have dropped to their lowest July level since 2015.
"The price of oil has been rising for five-straight weeks now at $81 a barrel," said De Haan on Monday.
Another reason for the spike in gas prices coast-to-coast has to do with some heat-related issues in some of the major refining states in the country.
"A lot of it has to do with the tremendous heat that the nation has seen over the last couple of weeks, and how it's impacted some of the largest refineries in the U.S. down in Texas and Louisiana," De Haan explained. "The heat has caused some unexpected disruptions, equipment failures have slowed down refineries' ability to produce as much gasoline that's coming in the middle of summer when demand is among the highest."
Carey says at this time, it's really hard to say how much longer this spike in prices will continue.
"Normally at this time of summer, they start to taper off and they start coming down, so this is unusual," she said with Brian Mazurowski and Susan Rose on "A New Morning". "Something that could really set the prices even higher is if we have extreme weather like a hurricane that takes out a refinery, or puts a refinery even out for a few days."
If there is any positive light into the spike in gas prices, De Haan believes the pace of increases may slow down in the week ahead.
"We haven't seen any new widescale outages at refineries or disruptions, and some of the heat has cooled off. But it's left some lingering issues that are being dealt with," De Haan said. "I don't know that we'll go up as much this week, but I do think the trend will probably remain to the upside, at least for the next couple of weeks."
Like Carey, De Haan also has his concerns with the U.S. being on the cusp of the peak of hurricane season in the next few weeks.
"That could cause prices to go up if there are any disruptions to the State of Texas or Louisiana, which hold half of the nation's refining capacity. That's something we'll have to watch," he said. "If any major hurricanes or storms develop in the Gulf of Mexico, that could send gas prices even higher."
However, once the gas prices plateau following this recent spike, there might not be much relief coming at the pumps in the near future.
"OPEC has continued to tighten and cut oil production. If that's a trend that continues, we probably won't see much sizeable long-term relief, and we could continue to see prices higher if OPEC maintains or enhances those production cuts in the months ahead," De Haan explained. "And so far, there is word that Saudi Arabia, which began cutting a million barrels a day in the month of July, could continue extending its production cut of a million barrels into the month of September. So not much promising news, at least for now."
If there is any relief in sight, De Haan doesn't see that possibility taking place until, at least, the fall months.
"We do tend to see gas prices declining slightly into the fall when demand starts to decrease, and as we transition back to cheaper winter gasoline. But for now, I think the next several weeks, we could see more upside before downside could eventually arrive as we get into the cooler months this October and November," he said.