Oil and Gas Prices Surging in Wake of Renewed Middle East Tensions
President
Donald Trump’s decision last week to assassinate Iran’s top military commander
has driven up oil and gasoline prices as war fears percolate in the Middle
East.
Gas
prices in Florida climbed 7 cents per gallon in three days following the drone
strike that killed Qasem Solemani and oil futures continued to rise in global
trading on Monday, multiple sources reported.
Gas
was selling in Florida at an average per-gallon price of $2.53, according to
travel club AAA. In South Florida on Monday, average pump prices were $2.54 in
Broward County, $2.55 in Miami-Dade County and $2.63 in Palm Beach County.
Iran
has vowed to retaliate, and traders are betting that whatever action the
country takes will disrupt oil production, shipping or both in the region.
On
Friday, the price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude surged $2 before
closing above $63 a barrel. On Monday, it peaked at $64.67 before settling at
$63.27. A year ago, on Jan. 4, 2019, the per-barrel price closed at $47.96.
Prices
for the global benchmark, known as Brent crude, exceeded $70 a barrel on Monday
for the first time since mid-September, when it briefly spiked following a
drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil fields that U.S. officials blamed on Iran.
Brent prices eased somewhat later in the day, closing at just under $69. A year
ago, the price was $57.06 a barrel.
AAA
spokesman Mark Jenkins said in the club’s weekly Gas Price Update that
motorists could be in for a bumpy January. “If geopolitical tensions continue
to escalate, crude prices may rise and drag gasoline along for the ride,” he
said.
Patrick
DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for the price-comparison website
GasBuddy.com, wrote Monday on his blog that gas prices shouldn’t climb too high
unless and until Iran follows through on its threat to avenge Solemani’s death.
“For
now, I could see a small 5-10 cent per gallon increase over the next couple of
weeks, but the real potential for fireworks at the pump will be contingent on
retaliation, and whether that retaliation targets oil infrastructure like Iran
struck last year,” DeHaan wrote.
In
Broward County, most gas stations were selling at $2.49 and above, according to
GasBuddy.com. Even a cluster of stations in Margate, which offered the state’s
lowest price of $2.17 in recent weeks, were at $2.47 or $2.49 on Monday.
Just
two stations continued to sell gas at $2.17 a gallon on Monday — an Exxon and a
Rocket Fuel near each other at Wiles Road and Riverside Drive in Coral Springs,
GasBuddy.com reported.
The
lowest price in Palm Beach County available without a wholesale club membership
was $2.35 at a Mobil station at 10th Street and West Jasmine Drive in Lake
Park.
Bargain
hunters in Miami-Dade County could find that $2.35 price in two locations. One
was at eight competing stations along Southwest 72nd Street between Southwest
87th Avenue and Florida’s Turnpike in the Sunset neighborhood.
Further north near Marlins Park, a Valero station at Northwest 17th Avenue and Northwest Seventh Street posted that same price.