Prediction: Gas Prices To Hold Steady In 2020
Gas prices have jumped to $ 2.49 per gallon in Bismarck Mandan after the air strike that took out an Iranian General. Despite the tension in the Middle East, experts do not expect any major spikes in prices in 2020.
Last week’s targeted drone attack outside of the Bagdad International Airport in Iraq has raised questions surrounding what increased conflict in the Middle East could mean for global fuel prices.
“But this is not enough of a seismic change just yet,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a Boston-based tech company that operates apps and websites based on finding real-time fuel prices at gas stations in the United States, Canada and Australia.
DeHaan said the U.S. oil and gas economy has shifted enough in the last decade from external dependency to self-reliance to shore up against significant cost differences at the pump due to Middle Eastern strife.
“Ten years ago, we might have seen the prices shift 10 to 20 percent, but now it might be more like 3 percent,” he said. “The U.S. is far more insulated, and we are less reliant on the Middle East than 10 years ago.” North Dakota's oil production is a huge part of that.
Here are DeHaan's price prediction at the pump for the rest of the year.
Barring major attack on such supplies, he predicted the following fuel prices per gallon as national averages over the next 12 months:
• January: $2.47 gasoline; $3.01 diesel.
• February: $2.41; $2.96.
• March: $2.57; $3.03.
• April: $2.72; $3.13.
• May:$2.84; $3.14.
• June: $2.76; $3.10.
• July: $2.72, $3.04.
• August: $2.70; $2.92.
• September: $2.61; $2.96.
• October: $2.54; $3.01.
• November: $2.47; $3.04.
• December: $2.39; $3.07.