Montana Gas Prices Rise Again This Past Week, Expect a Peak Soon

On Sunday, President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China. As a result, oil prices plummeted. Patrick DeHaan is the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy and he says oil prices may see another weekly loss along with wholesale gasoline prices. He mentioned that folks could be worried that a trade deal is not as close as anticipated and that could potentially lead to lower oil demand. In addition, gas prices in Missoula increased yet again this past week.

“Average gas prices in Missoula are up to about $2.89 a gallon on average,” DeHaan said. “That is about five cents higher than last week. That compares to the statewide average, which went up two cents. The statewide average currently stands at $2.86 a gallon, which is up from $2.84 a week ago. Nationally, we are looking at an average price of $2.90. That is up from two cents a week ago.”

DeHaan thinks continued small increases are possible, but he believes we are nearing a peak.

“When it comes to trends, Montana is generally a couple weeks behind what we see nationally,” DeHaan said. “We haven’t yet quite seen the national average top out. It may be just around the corner. I think it will probably be just a couple weeks after that that we may see a peak gas price show up in Missoula.”

According to DeHaan, we will likely begin to see prices decrease in the month of June. He expects this summer to be very similar to what we experienced last summer.