PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had a rippling effect across multiple industries since it started on Feb. 24, 2022.
WMBD talked to the Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, Patrick De Haan, to learn how gas prices have been affected by the war in Ukraine over the last year.
De Haan said that the war has had similar effects locally in Peoria as it has across the country.
“The price of oil had been elevated because of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine… which has caused a lot of countries to respond with severe sanctions that have impacted the flow of oil,” De Haan said.
He said that the war, in addition to several refineries permanently closing due to COVID, were both issues that contributed to the spike in gas prices in 2022.
According to information provided by GasBuddy, the average gas price on Feb. 21, 2022, was $3.66 a gallon. By March 21, 2022, The average was up to $4.53 a gallon.
Gas prices peaked the week of June 13, 2022, at $5.31 a gallon, but the prices began to go down after the situation began to stabilize.
“Out of an unreliable situation, there are still some things now that we’ve learned to suspect, the flow of oil has been hindered, but it has not been stopped, and that’s kind of the critical piece here, of why gas prices have slowly declined over the last 12 months after peaking last summer,” De Haan said.
De Haan said even if the war ended now, it would not bring gas prices back to a comfortable level immediately due to sanctions set on Russian exports.
“Even if the war was over, there is a lot of uncertainty that would prevent prices from going back to what Americans feel is more familiar,” De Haan said.
Looking forward, De Haan does not expect gas prices to reach the same heights as last summer.
“I don’t expect gas prices this summer to be quite as bad as last year, given the fact that there is some level of certainty, given that the economy has been slowed down by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, there probably won’t be as much demand, so we probably won’t see the record setting prices that we saw last year, but it could still be a painful summer,” De Haan said.
As of Monday, the current average gas price in Peoria is $3.46 a gallon.
