Gasoline Prices: How High Will They Go?

It should be no surprise to anyone that gas prices are up. In fact one news site even said they were up 26.7 cents per gallon over last week. Now that is a significant jump. One that will truly effect prices of everything that we buy. GasBuddy.com says that the average price of a gallon of gas today is $3.211 here in Austin, TX and $3.352 nationally. Compared to a year ago when gas was $2.545 here in Austin, TX and $2.695 nationally. This weekend I have seen some stations as high as $3.35 here in Austin. However, we will focus on the current average price rather then the highest. That is roughly a 67 cent jump over last year and 26 cents of that was just in the past week.
The problem is the unrest in the middle east. With riots in Libya and several of the other oil producing countries in the area. Dictators have fallen or are fighting to remain in control. Even killing (murdering) protesters in order to do so. In the case of Libya the dictator even blamed the protests on Al Quida and Ben Laden. While there may be some truth to that claim, we can't forget that he was the one that President Reagan bombed twice because Libya was considered a terrorist state at the time. Libya was tied to the bombing of the Pan Am plane over Lockerbie, Scotland. However, that is another story. Back to the gas prices. Many people wonder how high the prices will rise this time. Some have even suggested $4 maybe even $5 per gallon. However, most experts really don't expect gas to get above $4, but that's with one very big assumption. That being that the unrest ends soon in Libya and doesn't spread to some of the other oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia.

There is good news that the experts optimism may be on the right track. According to ABC News,

Oil prices fell Monday amid signs the disruption to crude exports from Libya is easing.

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