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Today’s average price in Dayton is about $2.58 per gallon, 6.6 cents more than this time last week, but less than the $2.79 on this day last year.
“Given that Saudi Arabia is such a stable and reliable oil producer, this kind of attack, which basically eliminated 5 million barrels of oil is going to haunt the market,” Mac said.
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Oil prices have already gone up as a result, she said. Prices surged as much as 17 percent following the attacks, but dropped a bit after President Donald Trump announced Sunday night that he authorized use of oil from the emergency oil supply, according to CNN.
Monday around noon the price of crude oil was up about 11 percent, according to oilprice.com.
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“We’re going to see prices steadily increase until Saudi Arabia bridges back to the standard level,” Mac said. “There’s a lot of things that are very unpredictable with what could happen next, but if Saudi Arabia restores production in about a week or so, which is what they’ve led us to believe, then I think prices are going to stabilize.”
Longer term, gas prices will begin dropping once production returns to normal levels, Mac said. Refineries have already started the transition to the cheaper winter blend and gasoline demand is dropping post-summer travel.
Prices through the winter are expected to be lower this year than last, and should stay stable unless geopolitical issues or the economy turn.
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