Price At The Pump: Kloza More Concerned About Behaviors Than Prices

As we start a new month, oil prices are continue to trade in the mid $60 per barrel range, but prices appear to be moving higher. In Monday’s action, West Texas Crude was trading at $67 per barrel. Tom Kloza with OPIS Pricing told CNBC this weekend while we saw higher fuel prices over the holiday weekend, he does not expect that trend to continue for all of June, or even 4^th of July weekend.

“What I’m worried about is where the prices are in July and August.  Because we do have a problem in the supply chain, with not enough drivers, we know what happens when we have hurricanes, and there is a propensity for crowd behavior that’s a little bit unruly or unreasonable that I think should frighten everybody this year.  So, be aware there’s a lot of cheerleading on Wall Street about how boisterous people are going to be to get out there and so forth.  It’s a little bit of a false start.  We’ll probably get a little bit of a dip back in prices in June, but then July and August could be problematic.”

Kloza noted on the supply side, things are looking good right now, but he is concerned if consumers start to get paranoid, and treat fuel the way they treated toilet paper early last year. He added he’s more concerned about the behavior of consumers than he is of crude oil prices right now.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com