CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Drivers have been keeping their eyes on prices at the pump as gas has continued to go up and down.
The cost of regular unleaded gas in Corpus Christi as of Wednesday morning is $3.61. That is up seven cents from one week ago.
These prices are moving like a roller coaster, but there's one key difference. When you ride a roller coaster you know when you’re going up and down. Gas prices can fluctuate without any warning.
“Oil prices yesterday plummeted by $6 a barrel at one point, but today we’re back up over $100 a barrel,” said Patrick De Haan an Expert Petroleum Analysis with Gas Buddy.
De Haan says keep in mind that global situations play a major role in the demand for gas and the price of oil. Right now, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the latest COVID-19 surge in China are both impacting what we pay at the pump.
“Russia, for example, is a big producing country of oil. China is a big consuming country of crude oil, so anything that happens in a consuming or producing country in a big way-- those are the types of factors that rise to the top in terms of importance,” said De Haan.
De Haan emphasizes that the pandemic already impacted oil and the current state in China could determine what we see going forward.
“We remember what happened here in the United States when COVID restrictions were put into place. It caused gasoline demand to plummet and prices to plummet,” said De Haan. “So now China is re-locking down some of its largest cities including Shanghai and Beijing and that’s causing oil demand to go down.”
With hurricane season approaching, that could be an additional wild card when it comes to watching that price change at the pump.
“Hurricane Ida at one point shut down basically the entire Gulf of Mexico. Of course, that was before Russia/Ukraine but that caused oil prices to go up because U.S. offshore oil production is so significant that when it shuts completely down due to a hurricane, there’s a global impact-- it’s not just an impact on the U.S.,” said De Haan.
When it comes to the next few weeks, De Haan says prices could go up or down. There’s no telling for sure what will happen.
“A lot of uncertainty and it could go either way. Things could go down or go up. I don’t think we’re going to deviate much from where we are mid to upper $3 range,” said De Haan.
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