AUSTIN, Texas — If you have been out on the road lately and had to fill up your gas tank, then you know that gas prices are going up.
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy, explained that prices started increasing four to six weeks ago when Russia started making threats of an invasion. Now that the invasion of Ukraine is underway and the summer season is almost here, he does not believe we will see relief anytime soon at the gas pumps.
According to Gas Buddy’s weekly report, in just the past week, gas prices in Austin have increased an average of 16.4 cents per gallon, which De Haan said is significant. This now makes the average price of gas in Austin $3.26 per gallon. To give you some perspective on how high that is, it is 29 cents higher than just one month ago and 91 cents higher than this time a year ago.
So what does this have to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Well, Russia is the world’s second-largest natural gas supplier, behind the U.S. With many unknowns as the Russian invasion continues and pushback against Russia continues as well, De Haan says there are big concerns over gas supply, which is making prices spike.
"There is the possibility that Russia could disrupt the flow of oil to cause oil prices to go up, or Western countries could put sanctions on Russia's oil, making it hard for it to make it to the market,” shared De Haan. “So, the risk is that suddenly you're going to lose or potentially you could lose a big source of crude oil, which obviously would have a profound impact on global supply and demand."
In addition to the unstable gas supply situation with the Russian invasion, De Haan said we are also entering the time of year that we will see gas prices go up due to the summer-grade fuel. During a normal year, between the beginning of March and Memorial Day, gas prices generally go up anywhere from 25 to 75 cents per gallon, but this year it could increase even more.
“It's just like motorists can't get a break right now, it is the perfect storm of the Russia-Ukraine situation, the switch to summer gasoline, demand for gasoline is starting to go up as temperatures warm back up and refineries are starting maintenance season,” said De Haan. “So, unfortunately, a lot of issues kind of all stacked on the side of pushing gas prices up and really no relief in sight any time soon.”
One good thing is that Texas actually has the fourth cheapest gas in the nation right now, and Austin generally sits right at or below the state average.
According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Austin was priced at $2.98 per gallon on Sunday, while the most expensive was $3.64 per gallon. The lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.69 per gallon, while the highest was $3.99 per gallon.
In Texas, the average gas price is $3.27 per gallon, while in California gas is an average of $4.90. California currently has the highest gas prices in the nation.
This week, Sen. John Cornyn joined a group of other Republicans in introducing legislation that would ban the U.S. from purchasing Russian oil in response to the invasion.
“There is absolutely no reason for a country as resource-rich as the United States to be reliant on Russia for oil, sales of which are funding their military campaign against Ukrainian sovereignty,” said Sen. Cornyn. “We should not be financially supporting Russia’s mission to rebuild the Soviet Union, especially when domestic oil production in states like Texas can help provide energy without enriching Putin’s authoritarian state.”
According to Cornyn's office, the U.S. imported hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day from Russia last year, which they said "unnecessarily" contributed to the industrial success of the "hostile competitor." His office also noted that Canada has already taken this step in prohibition, which could take 15 days to take effect after enactment.
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