Oil Prices Not Expected To Ease Anytime Soon

Consumers continue to deal with high prices at their local fuel station, thanks to the highest crude oil prices we’ve see in the past seven year. West Texas Crude was trading above $84 per barrel in Monday’s action, pushing gasoline and diesel prices higher. Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy says a bulk of what’s keeping oil prices higher is the ongoing global energy crisis.

“China is still facing coal inventories that are quite low, and in Europe, a little bit of relief from the natural gas shortage there with Russia sending more natural gas to Europe, but still, we are in a situation where global demand for oil continues to climb and supply is relatively stagnate.”

DeHaan noted OPEC shows no interest in increasing oil production at this time, and while the member nations are scheduled to meet later this week, there’s no indication there will be any change in policy.

DeHaan says while many are looking to the U.S., Canada and others to increase production to tamp down prices, he doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. But DeHaan says many people are looking past a potentially large supplier of oil; Iran.

“Iran has long been out of the picture, of course sanctioned by the U.S. and other countries, and now a joint plan of action is again being reviewed by companies taking place taking part in the G20 summit.  And there’s a possibility there could be a deal down the road that returns Iran’s two million barrels of oil per day to a market that badly needs it.”

So, what is it going to take for oil prices to flatten? For DeHaan's through's, listen to our entire podcast below.