When it comes to the direction of gas prices, November 4th is an important date on the calendar. That is the next time OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meets to discuss future oil production.
OPEC decided to not increase production anymore quickly three weeks ago, which has made things difficult on both the oil and gas industry and the consumer.
“On November 4th, we’ll see if they retake that decision and potentially accelerate their timeline to increase production. Since they didn’t do it in October, though, I don’t know why they would do it in November,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.
If that meeting goes the way DeHaan believes it will, then he expects the prices to keep trending upward.
“I think all signs point to prices remaining at or above today’s levels for the next month or two until this energy shortage is sorted out. They could go back up to $3.39 or maybe $3.45 or $3.49 as oil prices continue to push higher,” said DeHaan.
Prices have been trending downward so far this week, but DeHaan urges you to be on the lookout for a price cycle later this week.
“I don’t think the downward move is going to last long. We could see Indianapolis prices jump back up at some point this week,” said DeHaan.
DeHaan says price cycling is a marketing strategy where stations ignore trends in oil and wholesale gas prices for usually about two weeks at a time.
“Stations instead choose to undercut each other almost every day until they run out of margin. That’s when prices shoot back up,” said DeHaan.
