Painful At The Pump In North Dakota. How High Will It Go?
Yikes, I don't remember what little town it was in northeast South Dakota this past weekend, but the gas prices were $3.33 a gallon. I had to look twice to make sure I wasn't looking at premium unleaded or something else. Yep, $3.33 a gallon for the cheapest grade of gasoline. Needless, to say I moved on to the next town to fill up.
Gas prices in Bismarck are not much better. Currently sitting at $3.14 a gallon at most stations in Bismarck Mandan. That's after we briefly went below $3.00 dollars a gallon a few weeks back.
Fall is typically when demand goes down and gas prices tend to fall until spring. Not this year. According to GasBuddy, gas prices are expected to rise as the price of crude oil could go as high as $100 dollars a barrel. Currently, prices are around $83 dollars a barrel for Texas crude oil. Prices are expected to rise as coronavirus numbers continue to fall worldwide and the demand for gasoline continues to climb as more people are driving. Plus, the looming energy crunch in Europe and Asia is expected to keep supplies tight.
Gas prices are now higher than they've been since 2014. 7 years since we've had this kind of pain at the pump. The national average now stands at 3.33 a gallon. It's even worse of course if you drive a diesel vehicle. The national average is now at $3.53 a gallon.
Could we see $4.00 dollars a gallon by the end of the year? Let's hope the experts are wrong or this will become disastrous for our recovering economy.
Bismarck Mandan's Worst Intersections
LOOK: Things from the year you were born that don't exist anymore