Rising Gas Prices

Rising Gas Prices

While there's no fighting here in West Virginia, the unrest over in Libya is hitting us in other ways, like at the gas pump."The price that we see is affected by the perception of what's going on politically, and when the political situation changes, then obviously it has a drastic impact on the oil prices, and that would be reflected in the gasoline prices," says WVU professor of petroleum engineering, Kashy Aminian. Local gas station employees say they're also seeing the hike, and are afraid their business could take a hit."People stop moving around.  People drive less.  It hurts us on the service end of it as well," says Ryan Stuart, manager of the Westover Exxon.Libya has cut production of 400,000 barrels of oil a day, contributing to the rise in price.(USA Gas Prices)  In the short term, prices are still expected to rise, but should drop over time."It is possible that the price of oil might even go higher, and you can see the impact of that in the gas pump.  But, I think if we come back and look at it next year from now, you'll see that the price has come, probably come down," adds Aminian.Stuart says gas stations do make a profit when you buy gas, but it's small.  But, when prices jump, they don't just hurt the consumer; they hit businesses just as hard."There's a profit made, but it's not what everybody thinks it is, especially right now.  Honestly, the higher the cost goes, the smaller the margin is of profit.  You know, people aren't going to buy gas.  So, you got to be right there is a competitive level," adds Stuart. Aminian says a peaceful resolution in Libya could be the ticket to gas prices coming back down."This is probably a temporary issue.  Of course, you can never predict the future, particularly when it comes to political situations.  If the situation, for example, in Libya is resolved peacefully, or some change happens in there that this problem will go away, we'll see probably a significant drop in oil price," says Aminian. Aminian adds that the United States imports about two-thirds of their supply of oil, or about 10 million barrels a day.(wdtv)

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