ATLANTA — Oil prices are spiking higher than they have in the last four years.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen learned that could mean you’ll pay more at the gas pump.
Over the last week, the average price across metro Atlanta has jumped by more than 80 cents a gallon for the big rigs and more than 40 cents for the rest of us.
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At the Pilot Travel Center in DeKalb County on Monday, a gallon of diesel was $5.35 and a gallon of regular unleaded was $3.25.
“It’s hard to see things going a whole lot higher than that, absent ships being sunk outright through the Strait of Hormuz,” said Atlanta energy expert Chris Edmonds, CEO of Enerecap Partners.
The war in and around Iran is taking its toll globally.
But speaking strictly of oil, a barrel has gone from $60 before the fighting to nearly double early Monday, to back under $100 by midday.
Alex Meza is the Atlanta-based CEO of XBorder Solutions, a large trucking company.
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Meza says that over time, prices for everything could follow along.
“Probably four to six weeks of consistent increases in prices of diesel and the cost of oil is at least what it would take for consumer prices to see a bump,” Meza said.
The experts say so goes the price of a barrel of oil, so goes the price of anything else.
“Retail gasoline prices and diesel could still go up because we’re chasing the oil price. We saw $110, $115 in the price of a barrel of crude oil. That probably equates to another 20 to 30 cents in the price of gasoline, at least in a reaction,” Edmonds said.
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