BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
One of the silver linings
during the pandemic for
31-year-old Kingsbridge resident
Alex Johnson was how little
he was paying to fi ll up his
beloved 2018 Dodge Durango
called “Dudley” on his daily
early morning work commute
to New Canaan, Connecticut.
“Dudley’s a gas guzzler, so
normally $90 to $120 a month
for two hours back-and-forth,”
said Johnson, who is a regular
patron at the Mobil station at
5832 Broadway in the Bronx.
“During the pandemic, I was
paying so much less because
no one was on the road.”
As fewer cars were on the
road and remote work meant
most commutes were made
from room to room, gas prices
plummeted to under $1 a gallon
in at least 13 states as demand
fell during the fi rst few
months of the pandemic. For
Johnson, who is an essential
employee, he reveled in the
fact that he was paying only
$40 bucks, at most, to fi ll up
Dudley for his daily trek to
Connecticut.
But now, Johnson, through
heavy sighs and expletive
mutters, is back to paying as
much $5 a gallon at the pump,
as gas prices nationwide are at
the highest levels since 2014,
according to AAA and Gas-
Buddy. According to AAA,
regular gasoline prices in the
Bronx are around the state’s
average of $4.28 a gallon.
But in some areas like a
Mobil gas station in the Soundview
section regular prices
are as “low” as $4.39 a gallon
and as high as more than $5.
That number has gone up
more than 40% over the past
calendar year to $4.29 per gallon
as of Monday, and AAA
said New York City’s all-time
high of $4.41 a gallon, set in
the summer of 2008, could be
surpassed later this week.
Krystal Shephard, a Hunts
Points resident who said
gas pumps in her area have
steadily been in the “mid-tohigh
4” dollar range, wants
to know who to blame for the
surge. AAA offi cials point to
both the growing cost of crude
oil and a recent decision from
the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries
(OPEC) to increase oil output
by 400,000 barrels a day for
its 13 member countries have
been falling short of production
quotas.
“In short, we’re here because
of COVID and Russia,”
said Patrick De Haan, head
of petroleum analysis at Gas-
Buddy.
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 8 MAR. 11-17, 2022 BTR
De Haan explained that the
pandemic’s effect on the oil industry
was crippling. The demand
for gasoline plummeted
amid a shift to more work
from home settings, which
then led to oil companies fl attening
production and laying
off employees in bulk.
Oil companies, and by
extension gas prices, have
bounced back due to the U.S.
increasing vaccination rates
and the gradual reopening
of the country. De Haan said
that around last summer, gas
prices shot back up at a “furious
pace” as confi dence in vaccines
and offi ce re-openings
began to take shape.
However, a major issue has
transpired for oil suppliers in
the wake of surging gas prices
and production. Now, they
may not be able to meet the
rise in demand.
“Those long-term decisions
that oil companies were forced
to make (layoffs, production)
meant that they were in a predicament
as demand started
rebounding much faster than
they can keep up with,” De
Haan said. “So, when OPEC
started to increase production
last July, three months after
demand came back up, oil production
has been behind the
entire time and it can’t catch
up.”
The 23-country OPEC+ alliance,
which controls half of
the global crude supply, has
been hiking its production
quotas every month, but the
difference between those targets
and its actual output is
stark, with demand outpacing
production.
The month of January
saw a 600,000 barrels per day
quota shortfall, according to
the latest S&P Global Platts
OPEC+ survey, which experts
believe is indicative of a looming
supply crunch. In February,
OPEC oil output rose by
420,000 barrels per day.
DeHaan said that this situation
is only exacerbated by
growing geopolitical tensions
between the U.S. and major
crude oil exporter Russia,
with President Joe Biden levying
fi nancial sanctions on the
eastern European power’s for
its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine is a major transit
hub for oil and gas, combined
with the sanctions imposed
on Russia possibly reducing
the available oil supply in a
tight market, experts believe
it’s a storyline to watch when
it comes to future gas price
trends.
As gas prices surge across the nation, some Bronx motorists are paying as much as $5 per gallon at the pump
this month.
How
COVID and
geopolitical
tensions led
to high gas
prices in the
Bronx
FILL
IT
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