ROANOKE, Va. – Gas prices could soon be going up after attacks over the weekend on major oil plans in Saudi Arabia, according to analysts.
An incident early Saturday morning took out nearly 5% of the global daily output.
Analysts at GasBuddy said Monday that gas prices are not going to spike overnight, but they could start to increase as early as later this week.
“Thankfully, this is one that motorists will be able to digest without much of a problem,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
He expects gas to increase steadily over the next two weeks, ending up 10 to 25 cents per gallon more expensive than it is now, with the impact lasting as long as two months. Another worry is that prices could stay higher long-term.
“To see such a missile attack in Saudi Arabia now is very concerning and the market now has reason to believe Saudi Arabia may have to deal with more of these in the future and that’s why oil prices could be permanently impacted,” DeHaan said.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly said it could have much of its output restored by later this week.
DeHaan said that other events in the last few years, like Hurricane Harvey two years ago, have had a bigger impact than this development.
He said current gas prices in the Roanoke area ended up being more affordable than was expected at the beginning of the year. They’re far lower than the spike that came in the spring
And are down about 25 cents from a year ago.
Gas in Roanoke is an average of $2.29. It’s $2.39 in the New River Valley and $2.47 in Lynchburg, according to GasBuddy.