DeHaan: Fuel Price Picture Trying To Return To “Normal”

While investors are starting to look at life past omicron, the latest COVID-19 variant continues to have the biggest impact on oil prices. Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy noted that West Texas Crude traded in the mid-$80 per barrel range during Monday’s action and closed with some of the highest prices since the summer. The increase comes despite the fact that OPEC is set to meet this week to approve another increase in monthly oil production. While oil prices have been edging higher as fears of omicron continue to wane with oil investors, he expects little action in the coming weeks.

“I do expect January to February to be relatively quiet for the price of oil before we really start to see some escalation in prices this spring.”

When it comes to the question of are oil prices and fuel prices returning to normal, DeHaan said that’s a difficult question to answer. He said there is some scope that a return to normalcy may be taking place slowly.

“But keep in mind the pandemic could change at a moment’s notice.  I think while we are starting to see demand globally normalize, there’s always the risk that a new variant or something could change amidst the pandemic.  So, I do think 2022 will be closer to what we consider a normal year compared to 2021, but having said that, there are still a lot of influences and balances that were brought on by the pandemic that simply can’t be ignored.”

DeHaan added the cold weather across the west coast is pushing fuel prices up as well.

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