TAMPA — The average gas price in Tampa has shot up about ten cents in the last week.
Gas Buddy’s head of Petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, says it’s now at $3.59 a gallon with some spots much higher.
“I just passed a Chevron this morning that had gone up to $3.99. Now those increases probably won’t happen everywhere but we are likely to see an additional increase to $3.79. Potentially even $3.89. And I do believe that $4.00 a gallon is now in the pipeline in the days and weeks and weeks ahead,” said De Haan.
California is already seeing gas prices near or more than $5.00 a gallon.
De Haan says while the US hasn’t put sanctions on Russia’s energy sector yet, other sanctions are having an impact. And just because Russian oil makes up about 3% of what the US imported last year, doesn’t mean we won’t be affected.
“This is a global market and these are the repercussions. Countries that don’t even import from Russia are feeling the impact because everything is tied together,” said De Haan.
I also talked today with Florida Congressman Gus Blirakis from his office in Washington, DC. He says there are alternatives to make up for ending Russian oil imports.
“There are safe areas that we can drill and not depend on these enemies. Some of the OPEC nations, but specifically Russia in this case,” said Bilirakis.
Tom Gaitens trades feed commodities with Sarasota-based McDaniel Trading. He says he’s the sanctions don’t just affect gas prices, but the cost of the world’s food supply as well. “We already have high inflation you add even more factors in there to boost that inflation even higher and we have a political disaster,” said Gaitens.
Experts say the US could help the situation by tapping into its oil reserve or making a new nuclear deal with Iran. But breaking away from our ties to Russia won’t be easy.
“It would be easy to say let’s not just use their oil but we don’t have many other options to replace that amount of oil that’s been relied on,” said De Haan.
Tampa. So until peace is reached, the skyrocketing gas prices might continue going up.
