NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas notes that gas prices have been on the rise, even before Saudi Arabia said they would keep their oil production cuts in place.
"We've certainly seen some upward motion on gas prices for the past month or two," Steward said. "Here in Kansas, we're at $3.63 a gallon. That's up 14 cents in the past week and about 40 cents increase over the past month. It's a pretty steep increase on top of what we saw most of this year, which was pretty stable prices at the gas pumps. It's a little bit of a shock to the system to see some pretty sizeable jumps over the last few weeks."
Area prices are generally below the state average.
Reno: $3.46
McPherson: $3.51
Harvey: $3.47
Sedgwick: $3.59
Kingman: $3.56
Stafford: $3.55
Pratt: $3.69
Rice: $3.53
"The global situation with crude oil prices increasing, that's driving prices at the pump upward for the most part," Steward said. "Last month's extreme heat also played a role in the recent spike we saw at the pumps, as some refineries had to pull back their production or were limited in certain ways of full production."
It's hard to predict exactly what the geopolitical tensions in the middle east regarding the Strait of Hormuz will do to oil prices and therefore to gasoline, but traditionally, once the weather cools and school starts, prices tend to go lower.
"In a typical year, once we get to September or October, demand for gas typically falls as people's summer vacations wind down. There's just overall less demand for gas. We'll just have to watch where things go on the crude oil market."
More than half of the price of a gallon of gas is based on the underlying price of the crude oil from which it is refined.
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