The International Energy Agency says it will release 400 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve in an attempt to steady the global oil supply and crude prices. Will this help drive down gas prices?
Experts say: probably not.
"We can count on higher prices," AAA's Don Redman says. "I would imagine that we're going to continue, at least through the remainder of March into April, with these elevated prices."
According to Redman, gas sellers try to recoup the costs resulting from the oil price spike.
"Some of the supplies that we have for gasoline was purchased when crude was $99 (or) $100 a barrel," Redman said.
Redman also noted that that refineries are in the process of switching to producing summer-grade gasoline, which by itself will drive up prices at the pump because that type of gas is more expensive to refine.
LSU Center for Energy Studies director Greg Upton says the International Energy Agency's decision to release crude from the strategic reserve will do little to bring down oil and gas prices.
"Theoretically . . . if you increase the supply of something then the price can come down a little bit. In practice, the impact is really, really, really small on that global market in terms of that global price," Upton said.
In fact, Upton says the IEA isn't necessarily worried about driving down consumers' costs.
"The release from these reserves is, I think, more targeted and strategic in terms of making sure that individual refineries have access to that oil as opposed to having a big impact on the global price of that commodity," Upton said.
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