Gas prices jumped after the Christmas holiday. Don Good from the Good Oil Company in Winamac said that we will see a few jumps here and there into the New Year’s holiday.
He noted that the power outages on the east coast had an effect on prices recently in the Midwest.
“That kind of affects supply out there so supply is pretty mobile now so that’ll take supply out of the Midwest and move over there while they’re dealing with that,” said Good.
Traders are also playing a big part in the dollars and cents of gas prices. We’re seeing a more “robust” economy and usage is picking up. Good was quick to add that the outlook on prices is pretty good
“We are an energy exporter as a nation. If you look at all of our energy together, we produce more than we’re using. We will have the ability to become an oil exporter within the next two to three years, they’re saying. Between what we’re producing in the shale oil areas through fracking and what we’re seeing with the XL pipeline, North America, they say, can actually become an oil exporter and have more discovered oil and usable oil than Saudi Arabia has. That’s a huge shift in position over a relatively short period of time and completely changes the landscape of oil and then of course into the refined products pricing that we have in the United States.”
Good explained that the first quarter of 2014 is looking pretty positive in terms of gas prices.
“From what everybody is saying, we’re going to see a trade in this range that we’re seeing. It’ll flirt into the high two dollars. It might come up this spring when we go into what they call turnaround where they’ll be taking the refineries and changing from winter grade to summer grade. When they do that, they have to deplete their inventories and refill the tanks and there’s always some glitches. We’ll probably see some little spikes and those types of things. Overall, for the first quarter, I would say we should be in the low three dollars and high two dollar range.”
Gas prices ranged in the $3.40 mark in Northern Indiana on Thursday.
