As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, gas prices across the U.S. keep rising. On Thursday (Feb. 24) morning, the national average was $3.54 a gallon, according to AAA, and by Saturday, it had reached $3.60. In comparison, the average US gas price was about $2.65 one year ago, according to Cnet.
The national average could easily click past $4 a gallon by mid-March, Tom Kloza, an energy analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, told CNN on Thursday. Kloza also predicted that the record for U.S. average gas price — $4.11 a gallon in 2008 — would be broken sometime in spring.
The rising cost of crude oil has some experts considering even higher gas prices. On Yahoo Finance Live, Energy World founder Dan Decker warned: “My guess is that you are going to see $5 a gallon at any triple-digit [oil prices] … as soon as you get to $100. And you might get to $6.50 or $7.”
In California, prices on Saturday averaged $4.81 a gallon, up 4 cents from Thursday. Gas prices have also passed the $4 mark in Oregon and Nevada.
On Thursday, crude oil — which is refined to make gasoline — reached a high of $105.79 a barrel, the first time the price rose above $100 since 2014. By Saturday, it had settled to around $92 a barrel. The spike in wholesale gas prices from higher oil costs will likely hit consumers in a matter of days, Kloza said.
