Conflict in the Middle East hit North Texas gas pumps the past few days but an expert predicts the impact on prices will be limited.
At a QuikTrip station on Beltline Road in Irving, the price was $2.15 a gallon for regular unleaded Wednesday, $2.29 on Thursday and $2.24 Friday.
“It’s definitely a complication for my budget but I don’t have a choice but to deal with it so I just get on with my life,” said driver Anna Miles.
She was among the drivers who are unsure what to make of the surge in prices.
“I want to pay less, of course. But with the tension going on in the Middle East, price, of course, is going up,” said driver Jerman Acevedo.
Drivers who spoke with NBC 5 at the filling station Friday were all aware of the conflict that is sparking petroleum uncertainty.
“I was made aware of it two days ago just looking through my phone on social media,” driver Keith Broome said.
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Bernard Weinstein with Southern Methodist University’s Maguire Energy Institute said there is less reason for drivers to worry about this conflict than a decade ago when the United States was more reliant on Middle East oil.
“Because the United States today is the world’s number one producer of oil, we see a much more moderate impact. And in terms of how it’s going to affect the United States? Probably not very much at all, because we only import a very small amount of our total oil from the Middle East today,” he said.
In addition to that, Weinstein said there is currently an oversupply of oil and the US has the ability to produce even more if necessary.
”You can be sure that over the next couple of days we will see gasoline prices ratcheting up, but I don’t think it’s going to be long term unless this latest disruption in the Persian Gulf becomes a major conflagration,” Weinstein said.
Drivers at the QuikTrip hope he is correct.
“It worries me a ton, but at the same time what am I going to do,” Miles said. “I’ve still got to get to work.”
QuickTrip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh agreed with Weinstein. He said the company’s long term outlook calls for stable prices about where they were before this surge.
