Gas Prices May Soon Head Back Up, Pending OPEC Announcement

Posted on December 4, 2018
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

The steady drop in gas prices may soon come to an end. GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan says the average price of gas in Indiana has dropped from almost three dollars a gallon at the start of October to $2.20 on Monday. “But that may soon coming to a halt,” he says. “Oil prices are up sharply on the prospects that OPEC will cut oil production when it meets later this week at its annual meeting. In addition, there’s some optimism that a trade deal could be looming between the U.S. and China, thus bolstering the economy in the near short-term future.”

DeHaan adds that OPEC’s decision this week will be a major factor in determining where gas prices will go between now and the end of the year. “It’s really going to be read like a Fed statement, whatever OPEC decides to do,” he explains. “It’s very likely at this point that they will cut oil production to stem the 25-percent decline in the price of crude oil the last two months.”

He says that could put prices at the pump on an upward trajectory during the last weeks of 2018 and maybe into 2019.