Crisis in Syria Causing Oil and Gas to Increase

The usual drop in September that is expected for gas prices, might not take place this year.

In the U.S. the national average for a gallon of gasoline is $3.55, which is down from last month’s average of $3.63. By the early part of the fall, many analysts expected the average to fall as low as $3.40 per gallon, as the seasonal demand begins to fall after the high driving season of summer.

However, now some forecasters are predicting that a spike over the short-term of as much as 10 cents per gallon could take place.

Oil prices as well as gas futures rallied on Tuesday due to fears there would be a military intervention by the U.S. in the civil war in Syria and that would disrupt supplies of oil from the Middle East.

Brent crude was up over 3.3% on Tuesday to reach $114.35 per barrel, a high of six months. Early Wednesday it was up to over $115.65 per barrel. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate had reached $110 per barrel.

Gasoline futures for September were up 1% to just over $3.06 per gallon. Usually the wholesale prices are about 60 to 75 cents less than what the consumer ends up paying when filling up.

In parts of the U.S., those jumps in price will cause prices to go a bit higher, while in others the prices will drift down, but that is in limbo now waiting on the crisis in Syria.

Syria is not one of the major producers of oil with an output of less than 100,000 barrels per day. Prior to the civil war starting over two years ago, the country was producing more than 400,000 barrels per day.

However, the price of oil has been in the rise since July, when the crisis in Egypt caused a rise in tensions over concerns the supply could be interrupted if problems occurred in the Suez Canal.