By: Jacob Kessler
Gas prices have reached an eight year high in Northwest Ohio with cost projections continuing on an upward trend.
On Saturday, March 5th, the average cost of gasoline in Ohio was $3.729 with costs being just $3.333 the week before and $3.264 the month before according to AAA.
With gas prices already ranging from $3.76 to $4.09 per gallon throughout the two-county area, outlooks are not looking good for drivers. Officials at AAA state that this trend is going to continue as demands increase and the war in Ukraine continues on.
With Russia being one of the world’s top three crude oil producers, and countries and businesses continuing to cut off the Russian economy, the world is looking to alternate oil producers which will squeeze already tight wallets this summer.
The issue with Russia is also compounded by a lower production of crude oil and natural gas from the United States.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, since 2012 the daily production of crude oil and natural gas for the US has increased steadily from 6 million barrels a day to around 13 million barrels a day, with a decrease in production of almost 2 million barrels per day in 2016 and 2017.
In 2020, production fell again, this time sharply, from the 13 million barrels per day to 10 million. Currently, production has been increasing with outlooks showing production approaching 12 million barrels per day by the end of 2022.
While US crude oil production may be slightly back on the rise, the cancellation of numerous pipelines for both oil and natural gas, and the war in Ukraine, continues to hurt the bottom line for drivers.
The average consumption of crude oil for Americans averaged around 18.186 million barrels per day in 2020 according to the EIA.
With oil being produced not even covering the usage for Americans, calls for the continued boycott of Russian oil due to the war, and cancelled pipelines, the situation for most Americans wallets may get worse before the situation gets better.
Jacob can be reached at jacob@thevillagereporter.com