Gas prices across the Miami Valley have increased almost a dollar since last year.
News Center 7′s Dontre Drexelius talked to Patrick De Haan with Gas Buddy to get a better look at the causes.
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“Average gas prices across Dayton have actually fallen a little bit last week, but it’s amidst a bigger upward trend,” De Haan said.
De Haan went on to say the price of oil touched $94 a barrel last week. That’s the highest it’s been since the summer of 2014.
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The average price of gas in Dayton is about $3.17, but De Haan predicts it will spike soon.
“A lot of what’s fueling prices here in the last month or so is the ongoing developing situation between Russia and Ukraine,” De Haan said. “Russia is one of the largest oil producers in the world, and what happens there certainly can impact oil production globally.”
COVID-19 has been the main reason for the increase in gas prices over the past year, he said.
With the lack of people driving due to remote work and lockdowns globally, the demand for gas went down early on in the pandemic.
The recent spike in people going back out into the world reopened the demand for gasoline.
“Now, demand has recovered, largely speaking, and oil production is lagging behind because of those long-term decisions that were made when Americans had parked their cars early in the pandemics,” De Haan said.