Wondering why your gas prices continue to go up? Thank OPEC

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -In one week the average gas price in Cleveland went up by 20.7 cents a gallon, partially because of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to GasBuddy.

Last week, OPEC announced it would be cutting oil production by 2 million barrels a day, which makes up about 2% of the world’s production in a day.

“With OPEC+ deciding to cut oil production by two million barrels a day, we’ve seen oil prices surge 20%, which is the primary factor in the national average rising for the third straight week,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Some of the refinery snags that have caused prices to surge in the West and Great Lakes appear to be improving, with prices in those two regions likely to inch down, even with OPEC’s decision, as the drop in wholesale prices has offset the rise due to the production cut.”

Ohio is still paying increased prices after a refinery fire in Toledo on Sept. 20, that killed two.

That refinery is still closed and not expected to be back up and running until December according to AAA.

In the past month, because of both issues, the average gas price in Cleveland is up 36.8 cents.

From a year ago prices are up 79.2 cents.

De Haan predicts that in areas that haven’t seen refinery spikes, prices could continue to go up by 10-30 cents.

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