How high will gas prices fly? - The latest:
Bottom Line: The worst from hurricane Harvey has come and gone. That now includes it's impact to gas prices in addition to damage and devastation to the folks in Texas and Louisiana. Here's the impact on the wholesale market:
- 22 cent increase top to bottom on average - absolute peak average price for 24 cents
So what does that mean? It means that if your local gas station purchased gas at the peak of pricing last week, that's how much more they would have paid. So what's that mean to you? The peak retail impact has been about 25 cents per gallon over the prices of a week and a half ago (just prior to Harvey impacting). The better news is that as of this entry wholesale gas prices have declined by 11 cents per gallon from that peak. At worst, just after Harvey made landfall in Texas, just over 30% of US refining capacity had been taken offline. As of this entry, all but 13% is back online with more likely to be restored as soon as today.
The wildcard in South Florida is the potential Irma impact. With high demand for gas in advance of the potential impact of hurricane Irma, it's unlikely that retailers will be in a hurry to become super price competitive this week into next.