As diesel prices continue to spike, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan thinks the national average price may hit $7/gallon soon enough if recent trends continue.
Patrick De Haan Left Speechless By the Prices
In a post on X on Tuesday, De Haan expressed concern about rising diesel costs. He said that he was “speechless” as the possibility of $7/gallon diesel was close to becoming a reality, especially in the Great Lakes region, covering states like Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois.
The Ukraine Angle
The analyst also pointed to how the Ukraine-Russia conflict is dictating prices. “Ukraine spent months tightening global supply even while prices held flat,” De Haan said, referring to Kyiv’s strikes on Russian oil.
“When Iran responded & shut the Strait there was no Middle East cushion left to absorb it,” he added. The factors led to prices going higher during the peak summer demand time.
Trump had earlier said that he had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt attacks on Russian oil as diesel prices climbed higher. Trump said that the U.S. had urged Ukraine to strike other targets, but leave oil infrastructure in place due to its importance for the global crude oil supply.
Fuel Costs Reach New Milestone
De Haan also predicted that fuel costs reached a “new milestone” as the national average price of diesel “hit $6.301/gal while gasoline is up to $4.355/gal.” He added that the prices could “jump noticeably over the next 48 hours,” warning that diesel may “hit $6.60/gal in a few days, surpassing the inflation-adjusted peak seen in 2022.”
According to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price of gas on Tuesday was $4.3289/gallon, while diesel was at $6.2694/gallon. In California, gas exceeded $6/gallon, at $6.0175, while diesel prices exceeded $8, at $8.2124/gallon.
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